The vedas acknowledge divine karma as the origin of all creation, preservation, and destruction. However, since God does not have desires, unlike humans, he is not constrained by them. In the first chapter of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.6.1), we discover that karma is one of the three main causes of diversity, alongside name and form. The variety in names is a result of speech, and the variety in forms is a result of the eye, while the mind and body are the sources for the variety in actions. For every action, the body serves as the source, the controller, or the lord. Within the body, the mind, speech, breath, organs of action, and organs of perception are regarded as the primary deities who receive sustenance from the body and carry out their respective functions. Nevertheless, we cannot solely depend on them to combat the impurities and the malevolent forces that can infiltrate our body, as they are susceptible to evil and demonic influences, thoughts, desires, temptations,...
What does this mean? How can we know something we do not know and how can we do not know what we know? This is the paradox of knowing the Self, not knowing the known and knowing the unknown. The reference here is to the Self (Atman) or the Supreme Self (Brahman), which is perceptually and intellectually the unknowable. The verse alludes to the difficulty in understanding transcendental states of existence. The Self cannot be experienced by the mind. Hence, mentally we cannot know or be aware of the Self. Yet, we can experience the Self as Self and become aware of it, by being one with the Self, in a state of non-duality. However, since we do not keep that state when we are awake, we will never be aware of it in a wakeful state.
Let us take the analogy of an ant and a human being. For the ant we do not exist, even though we exist. It is because the ant cannot comprehend the immensity of us. Even if we stand before it, it cannot fathom our existence entirely. It may have a vague feeling of something big standing near by, but it does not know us as other people know us. To know anything, you need knowledge, matching intelligence and the ability to comprehend and identify what has been perceived. With the Self, none of these is possible mentally, the instrument upon which we depend normally to experience things and make sense of them.
The Self is also experienced in a state of self-absorption, in deeper states of samyama (an advanced state of concentrated meditation), when there is no duality and distinction between the knower and the known and when our minds and senses are fully withdrawn. Thus, when, there is an awareness of the knower it is unknown and when the knower is absent it is known. Hence, it is unknown to those whose mind and senses are active and who experience duality; but it is known to those whose mind and senses are asleep and who enter into a state of unity without the distinction between the knower and the known.
In short, we are speaking here about knowing the unknown or even the unknowable. Since we oscillate between wakefulness and deep sleep on a regular basis, in our wakeful state we are consciously unconscious of the Self, but in deep sleep we are unconsciously conscious of it. Yet we are never sure whether we know it at all, because our experience of the transcendental Self is always indeterminate and beyond our minds and senses.
Yasyamatam Tasya Matam Matam Yasya Na Veda Sah; Avijnatam Vijanatam Vijnatam Avijanatam.
Twitter:@merrill_ab
The most advanced state of concious realisation of the Brahman & Atma. Once again taken back to searching for 'Who am I'. Om Swami Ramana Maharshi ye namaha
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