I. Consciousness as the Essence of the Universe
4:01 AM Posted In Psychology of Yoga: Consciousness: States and Grades Edit ThisBasically, yoga is a matter of consciousness in all its perspectives, therefore, it is necessary to understand – what consciousness is as well as its various manifestations, states and grades so as to deal with it properly and attain the object of yoga. The Vedic seers were the founders of the discipline of yoga and it would be helpful if we see how they have envisioned consciousness in the course of developing this discipline of perennial importance.
According to Vedic seers, consciousness is the essence of the reality and this becomes evident when we look into its involvement in the making as well as cognizance of the totality of the being in the midst of which we find ourselves. Had consciousness not been there, anything anywhere would not have been made the object of cognition on any level of cognizance whether it is perceptual, emotional or intellectual. Shorn of such a cognition; it would have been deficient in its being but this does not suggest that nothing is there in existence apart from our consciousness of it. Things do exist there, whether we are consciousness of them or not. Had this not been the case, our planet itself would have emerged all at once fully furnished with conscious beings like ourselves having cognizance of it and thus having cut short its whole history of rolling like a ball of fire. Its existence for billions of years without any trace of conscious beings on it is in itself an infallible evidence in favour of the existence of things without anyone there to take cognizance of that existence.
But there is a difference between consciousness as such and one imbued with consciousness, in the same way as there is a difference between matter and anything material. Any particular material object may or may not be there at a particular point in space and at a particular moment in time, but this does not preclude the existence of matter as such there at that moment. Vijnanavadin’s (Buddhist) as well as Hume’s ambiguity on this point, pave the way for sunyavada and solipsism in course of history which bred a lot of confusion in determining the ultimate shape of the reality we are face with. Consciousness cannot preclude matter in the same way as matter cannot preclude consciousness. Matter requires consciousness for its cognition while consciousness stands in need of something other than itself to serve as the object for getting actualized its basic nature of being conscious.
According to Vedic seers, consciousness is the essence of the reality and this becomes evident when we look into its involvement in the making as well as cognizance of the totality of the being in the midst of which we find ourselves. Had consciousness not been there, anything anywhere would not have been made the object of cognition on any level of cognizance whether it is perceptual, emotional or intellectual. Shorn of such a cognition; it would have been deficient in its being but this does not suggest that nothing is there in existence apart from our consciousness of it. Things do exist there, whether we are consciousness of them or not. Had this not been the case, our planet itself would have emerged all at once fully furnished with conscious beings like ourselves having cognizance of it and thus having cut short its whole history of rolling like a ball of fire. Its existence for billions of years without any trace of conscious beings on it is in itself an infallible evidence in favour of the existence of things without anyone there to take cognizance of that existence.
But there is a difference between consciousness as such and one imbued with consciousness, in the same way as there is a difference between matter and anything material. Any particular material object may or may not be there at a particular point in space and at a particular moment in time, but this does not preclude the existence of matter as such there at that moment. Vijnanavadin’s (Buddhist) as well as Hume’s ambiguity on this point, pave the way for sunyavada and solipsism in course of history which bred a lot of confusion in determining the ultimate shape of the reality we are face with. Consciousness cannot preclude matter in the same way as matter cannot preclude consciousness. Matter requires consciousness for its cognition while consciousness stands in need of something other than itself to serve as the object for getting actualized its basic nature of being conscious.
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