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The goal of man's consciousness or knowledge
seems to be the consciousness of the entire
universe.
Philosophy usually aims at this knowledge (vijnana);
whether it be through the process of science, or
through the process of Yoga or inner physic
awakening. That the poets seem to have such
moments of universal consciousness seems to be
conceded. One embraces all the world, and seems
even to feel that he knows the universe. It is
not, however, any part of the universe that he
discerns, but the whole itself. Individual or
particular knowledge of any object is
transcended, and the particular itself is seized
as mirroring the whole universe. These
experiences of the cosmic consciousness have
also been narrated by many saints.
The knowledge of events happening far from
where one is, and of events to happen hereafter,
seem also to fall into this category. It is said
to be even non-mediated by the sense organs,
which could only see and hear and sense
particular objects before them.
Cosmic consciousness has sometimes been said
to be similar to some of the experiences of the
Upanisadic seers :
- It appears like a flash of lightning.
- It is the perception of the atman in
all, and of all in the atman; and it is that
which has become all these( sarvabhutam
sarvamidam)
- It is that from which all have come into
being, by which all are sustained, and into
which all merge at dissolution.
- It is a liberating experience.
One enters into the cosmic field. It is held
that this universe is something that one can
know when one passes beyond the individual mind,
the senses and even the ego centred in the body
for its knowledge. The cosmic consciousness is
thus held to be consciousness without the
ego-centredness or body-centredness. It has been
very difficult to speak about this consciousness
in the language of ordinary man.
This cosmic consciousness is held by many to
be the goal of man. The experiences some times
range from the totality of the whole to the
void, or even the absolute without any
distinctions.
Some types of cosmic consciousness however
feel the cosmos itself extending to spheres far
beyond our senses and there have been some who
have described the worlds beyond the sense-range
and life-range.
Some have seen Gods and Goddesses of their
persuasion, and have valued highly this
communicability of the cosmic consciousness with
their own. In and through this cosmic
consciousness, one almost enters the world of
mythical gods and powers-the region where one
almost sees the preparations for world events
here and elsewhere.
But all this is said to be just the product
of a fantastic imagination by people who see in
this cosmic consciousness a world of maya much
subtler than our gross worlds which restrict
even the world of maya to give us a world of
ignorance (avidya).
Some may see in this meaning of our
meaningless world-lila. As a scholar Kapila
Sastri remarked, the world of lila is just one
removed from the world of maya.
Cosmic consciousness is of the mind region.
The mind in this region becomes the most
expensive womb of all imagination, along with
all the possibilities of the individual mind,
sense organ, and motor organ group. Moving
beyond, and out of, the body consciousness, one
begins to enter into the mind consciousness and
lives in it.
Cosmic consciousness is centred on the mind -
the cosmic mind which permits the many
individuals to experience the mind-state and
transcend it. The philosophies, which claim mind
to be the ultimate substance, are usually
impressed by the vastness of the regions of the
mind. Its capacity to move to far distances and
conceive of infinity or infinities is very
astounding. The Upanisads speak of mind -speed,
which is much faster than all physical speeds.
Intellect, lifting itself up beyond the levels
of perception and observation, delivers certain
axiomatic truths, which have proved invaluable
in research, even in the physical and biological
sciences. Whilst it soars beyond, it also
analyses minutely. In one sense the very
conceptions of bigger than the biggest and
smaller than the smallest, and minuter than the
minutest, are all mental concepts, necessary for
man's progress in the scales of the scales of
the cosmos and microcosm. The mind is not more
real than matter, but the mind is certainly
subtler than matter, and it may well be that
life is the bridge between the two. It is in
organic life that we find mind is real to
matter, and matter is real to mind.
Cosmic consciousness is more than the
material, and more than the mental, even in its
higher reaches; in this sense that mind
awareness is multidimensional, and reveals
certain aspects of transcendence over space and
time. Thus certain awareness of things and
persons beyond the possibility of perception and
inferences also become possible. A higher mental
being is omniscient and omnipresent in a sense,
which the lower mental being can hardly imagine.
It is the assiduous cultivation of spiritual
aspiration to see beyond the gross and the
subtle that precipitates the awareness that goes
beyond the particular and the universals of
conception. Cosmic consciousness must be
distinguished from the universal abstract notion
of it. This latter is a method by which one
abstracts from the perception of the particular
in order to arrive at the conception of the
universal, which is held to be the goal of
perception. This has been said to be practised
steadily by philosophers so that the form of the
particular, resident in all of them, can be
abstracted from them by the mind. The mind thus
is made to arrive at the notion of the form.
Laws governing particulars are similarly
inducted. This is undoubtedly a clear enough
substitute for the intuition of the universal.
Most abstractionist yoga, and mathematical and
scientific ideation or phenomena belong to this
order of experience. It is very much likely that
it is a very near-cosmic phenomenon, though a
construction by the mind. It may perhaps even be
said to be a mental perception
(manasa-pratyaksa) or conception, without the
possible implication of its having been produced
by the mind or being a product of the mind
itself.
The mind has its own world of phantasy and
play of ideations, projections due to desire and
wishes .No wonder many psychologists undertake
to demonstrate that the mind's sphere of
activity within itself is just dream-making. But
one may well wonder how it actually works,
expect with the material that nature provide. If
mind itself is nature, then why is it that the
world of objects are not amendable to the mind
as such? And why has the mind to secure a
freedom from objects when it dreams and lives
its own life-a life of self-imposed phantasy
that might, when accentuated, lead to grave
consequences in life?
Thus there is lot of confused thinking about
the cosmic consciousness. It is said to be
amoral, mystical and transcending the world,
both perceptually and conceptually.
The cosmic consciousness in Sri Ramchandra's
Raja Yoga is really cosmic in the sense that it
is the awareness of the brahmanda - the
universe. One feels that one is a member of that
universe, and part and parcel there of. Instead
of feeling that he is a particular individual
with his own particular separate life to live,
he finds himself to be a member of a universe.
In this sense what happens is that his own
physico-psychical body is infused with
vibrations of force far exceeding its personal
vibration with which it was endowed. The life
that one lives is no longer circumscribed to the
individual organism. He finds that a vaster
world is open to him. Of course this is not in a
sense identical with the experience of the world
around us in the physical sense or geographical
or planetary sense. Far from it .one feels drawn
into a vaster experience -a freer world to live
in. A sense of growing freedom is available
This may even be called the astral world-a
subtle world of which our world and our bodies
are manifestations or grosser forms. Things,
which happen in this universe, are causally
prior to the events in this perceived world.
Men, who have visions of these events in the
astral world are those who here, become
soothsayers and prophets of the world here. This
world seems to be determined by that world.
Cosmic consciousness is the concrete experience
of that cosmos, which is hidden to the
perceptive consciousness, in the sense that it
is the future of the present seen, rather than
its past. But this is undoubtedly a gain from
the worldly point of views, through it is not
liberation, except from the sense of ignorance
of the future in respect of the now of the
world.
In mystic knowledge these areas of experience
could be called godly, for Gods have indeed the
knowledge of the further, and of course, of the
past and the present. Sages too who have access
to this astral causal sphere are called knowers
of the three time-states (trikala-jnani). The
Mind region is said to be the most powerful
region of God. And most seekers seek this region
and are experiencing bliss. This is also the
region of Light. The path of light leads deeper
and deeper into this universe of light. From
this region all receive their power and help in
this world. Departed souls also seek this
region. But this region is also stated to be a
region where there is the restrictive or binding
activity of the ego which expresses itself as,
and in, individuals, through in a universe of
cosmic consciousness, it remains freed form the
individuated consciousness, no longer restricted
or deluded by the physical and other
limitations. This is what many have sought as
the world of liberation, of happiness, of
blessed and purified egoism bestowed with cosmic
consciousness.
According to Sri Ram Chandra there are eleven
circles or rings which, of course, are
progressively subtler as they proceed nearer to
the centre. The outer ones are grosser than the
inner ones. Egoism is already the point of
manyness in experiences, and of separative
existence and striving. But in the cosmic
consciousness these separative features are
subordinated to the cosmic unity. There is
co-operative manyness and all perceive the
necessity of unity, however diverse may be the
levels of egoism or individual functions. The
glory of manyness in oneness is visible and
enjoyed. The view of manyness as an illusion, or
as wicked and evil passes over to the conception
of luminous integrative manyness, which
harmonize. But lower levels of mind may throw up
diverse and even contrasting experiences. But
one who, patiently, with the help of the
Master's transmission, ascends would discover
the inner urge that makes for crossing over all
these ego-circles. One is not yet in sight of
that Reality, which is reflected in the mind and
its egos.
The Central Region, however, opens before him
a new frontier of Being. The exploration and
experience of this divine region is beyond all
description. This is the reality of realities
through open to human experience by Sri Ram
Chandra's Yoga.
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