Consciousness versus Awareness || Acharya Prashant, on Nitnem Sahib (2019)

Acharya Prashant

Video Information: Advait Learning Camp, 31.03.2019, Chandigarh, India   Context:  What is consciousness? What is awareness? What is difference between consciousness and awareness?  How to live in the present? How do I get liberated from the past?  Music Credits: Milind Date ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ . #acharyaprashant #liveinpresent #learnfrompast

Transcript

00:00When the

00:27Lord expands his creation then many types of living beings get created. When

00:34you dissolve everything then all the living beings get absorbed back into you.

00:46Please help me understand what does expansion and dissolution of Lord mean.

00:55The Lord Abhilash is the source of your consciousness. The world is the expanse

01:10of your consciousness. The Lord is the source of your consciousness. The world

01:21is the expanse of your consciousness. What does the creation of the world mean?

01:38The pure source point of awareness has manifested itself into the multiple

01:52colors, multiple levels of consciousness. That is the creation of the world. Now

02:01the world comes into being. The world and consciousness are one. God and the

02:11source of consciousness which is pure awareness two are one. What does it mean

02:23for consciousness to dissolve and go back to God? It means that now your

02:35consciousness is no more affiliated with its contents. What is consciousness?

02:52The contents of consciousness are consciousness itself. Whenever you say

03:02you are conscious you are always conscious of something. So consciousness

03:06always has contents. When you say you are thinking you are always thinking

03:13about something. So consciousness is nothing without its contents. What does

03:24it mean then for the world to be absorbed back into God? It means that now

03:31you have consciousness without content or you have pure awareness. You can

03:41express it either way. You could either say now there is consciousness sans the

03:49contents of consciousness in the sense that now the ego tendency finds no need

03:55to associate itself, identify itself, affiliate itself with any of the

04:02contents of consciousness. Or you could say consciousness itself has receded and

04:09is now finding rest in pure awareness. There is no expanse. There is just a

04:17point and that point am I. Are you getting it? Have you seen how the mind

04:35becomes full of some content when you are excited or angry or worried or

04:45lustful? That is the expanse of consciousness. Now consciousness is very

04:54very strongly associated with some content. You can't stop thinking about it.

05:02You can't help brooding over it. This you could call as the emergence of the world.

05:13Now the world has emerged and become very meaningful for you. And what is

05:20meant by dissolution of the world? Grace shone and the I tendency grew wise and

05:37loosened its grip over the pretty object of association. Now the content has been

05:50dropped. The content is dropped. Consciousness no more because we said

06:01there is no consciousness without content. You could either call it

06:07consciousness no more or you could call it pure consciousness which means

06:11consciousness without content. One is conscious but one is not conscious of

06:16anything in particular. That is called pure consciousness. Normally when you are

06:22conscious there is something in your mind. You are always conscious of

06:27something. I repeat what is pure consciousness or awareness? There is

06:37consciousness but of what? Well nothing in particular. One knows what? Nothing in

06:48particular. When you know but know nothing in particular then you actually

06:52know. When you know only the particulars then what the hell do you know? All that

07:00you know is the particular and the particular is the little. And little

07:05knowledge is no knowledge. Therefore knowing or awareness is when you know

07:15without knowing anything specific. You just know. That is awareness. When you

07:25know something specific then you are. When you just know without knowing

07:33anything specific then only the knowing is you are not. I'll repeat. When you know

07:40something specific then you are. When you just know nothing specific then you are

07:53not. Only knowing is. That you could also call as knowing without the knower and

08:05that is awareness. In consciousness knowledge is always with a knower. So

08:14there is knower and he has knowledge and this is the usual process of

08:17consciousness. In awareness there is only knowing. There is no object of

08:24knowledge and therefore no knower. Therefore you can be conscious but you

08:31can never be aware. In consciousness the I is preserved and strengthened. In

08:38awareness there is no I at all. There is just God. If it's a little too fast for

09:01you, play it again on your device and listen to it. Rather play it on loop. I

09:16have not said even a quarter of what needs to be said on this. But I've

09:34already said much more than what can be said on this. So the rest is upon you.

09:45Listen to this again and again. Abhirash quotes again from the Nithyanam Sahib.

10:05Bhoot bhavik bhavan kahani. Whatever happened in the past is going to happen

10:16in the future and is happening now.

10:27Abhirash says I'm not clear about this statement. How should one look at past

10:32present and future? I've heard people telling me to live in present. What does

10:39this really mean? This statement in Nithyanam seems to indicate that the

10:44future is nothing but a repetition of the past. Is it indicating that for a

10:49person living in time the past present and future are the same and we need to

10:55go towards timelessness? Please help me understand this. Yes, Abhirash. Broadly

11:00yes. You are seeing it rightly. The ego loves time. The ego hopes that time will

11:19provide it redemption. So the ego never likes to opt out of time. It continues to

11:31swim in time and in time there is no newness. There is only a repetition of

11:36the past. Awareness is new. Consciousness is stale. Mark the difference. In

11:47awareness great and fresh things happen. In consciousness petty and stale things

11:56happen. Consciousness is so scared it merely wants to repeat the past. Awareness

12:06is so fearless it abhors repetitions. In awareness there is creativity. In

12:15consciousness there is merely a replication.

12:38Consciousness is second-handed. Never new. What you are conscious of is coming from

12:45somewhere therefore it is not original. In awareness there is authorship. There

13:00is originality and therefore awareness is the only authority.

13:15The Guru is telling us whatever happened in the past is going to happen

13:20in the future and is happening now. That's the cycle of Prakriti. Her design

13:28is trapped in time. Prakriti is movement and movement can happen only in time.

13:44Change necessitates time. In Prakriti there is restlessness so everything is

13:54changing. If you are restless you cannot sit still. Can you? If you are restless

14:01things will keep changing. In Prakriti there is continuous change. In Prakriti

14:10there is time and yet Prakriti never changes fully. It changes in its own

14:16dimension. The dimension of time. Like a flowing river in which there is

14:25continuous change but within the two banks. The limits of the two banks are

14:33never breached. Have you ever seen a river flying? At best it changes its

14:47course a little or floods the neighboring areas a little. That's

14:52cosmetic rebellion. But the river is so severely and so cruelly contained by

15:03its course, its boundaries and yet it is always moving. Movement that is merely

15:15superficial and affords it no real change actually. That's Prakriti. That's

15:30why she has been variously likened to a stream. A stream is always flowing but

15:36within its limits. That's also how we live. Always trying to change this or

15:45that but nothing ever really fundamentally changes. Things change on

15:52the surface and as the poet has said the more the things change the more they

16:00remain the same. You had jealousy in the past, you have jealousy now. You had

16:11insecurity in the past, you have insecurity now. You can go back 4,000

16:16years or 4 million years back. You will find insecurity and irrespective of how

16:29long back you go, you'll always find a three-dimensional world, won't you?

16:32What has changed then? What has changed? The world was always three-dimensional.

16:42Was it not? Why? Because consciousness is three-dimensional. Now within this

16:59unchanging framework of consciousness, there are cosmetic changes in the

17:03objects of consciousness. There is hardly any change and therefore the

17:07fundamental condition of man has remained the same. Man was fearful 5,000

17:14years back. He is fearful even today. People were fighting for property 5,000

17:21years back. They are fighting for property even today. Men were fighting

17:27for women 5,000 years back. Even today it's the same. What has changed? So the

17:34saints are saying whatever happened in the past is going to happen in the

17:37future and is happening even now. Does that mean there is no possibility of

17:42liberation? There is. There were liberated ones in the past and there are liberated

17:46ones today as well. The ones who have to live contained in time continue to live

17:53contained in time and those who love liberation, they flew away then and they

18:01flow away even today. You need to have a love for the sky, you will fly away. The

18:28possibility of liberation is always there. It depends on you whether you

18:31exercise that possibility.

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