TEMPORAL RELATIONS OF THOUGHT

Existence is one, nondual, absolute, and eternal. That Existence, or Reality, is Brahman, or the Supreme Self. It needs no expansion or activity, as it is uncaused, transcendent, immanent, omnipotent, omniscient, all-encompassing, full, and complete. Everything is inside It, and nothing is outside of It. It is all-encompassing, both subject and object; eternal and transient; good and bad; existence and non-existence; spiritual and temporal; illusion and real; and the state of opposites. Any name, or form, of externality is manifestly illusory or non-existent. Name and form cannot stand the test of space, time, and causation. In the time scale, they changed in the past, they are changing in the present, and they will go on in the future. This is the Reality, and this is the Truth. In this Reality we are circumventing in the midst of two "I"s, unable to comprehend the eternality and transience of which one of the two. One "I", as Atman, or Self, is eternal, infinite, imperishable, and remains steady regardless of any objective or external circumstances, existing beyond dualities, opposites, dimensions, names, forms, space, time, and causation. It remains a mute witness to all actions, inactions, emotions, sensations, and feelings without being impacted by any. It remains steady and unperplexed whether in Jagrat (the waking state), where it witnesses the manifest world, or in Svapna (the dreaming state), where it observes mental imagery and illusions. It endures as it is in Sushupti, or the deep sleep state, as there is no thought of externality to quiver, and in Turiya, or the fourth state, it is pure witness consciousness, as there is no object to witness. It remains unattached to all the manifestations, as it is fully conscious of its Absolute Existence. It remains in a state of equanimity, detachment, dispassion, and disengagement. It is Self-effulgent, Self-luminescent, Self-powered, Full, and Complete in every respect. It does not depend on the cycle of the Samsara Chakra, orlppbirth and death, nor on the fleeting nature of the temporal domain. The other "I", as an embodiment of the body-mind complex and of psycho-physical structure, is oblivious to the first one, positioning itself in externality as if that state were in perpetuity, unaware of its transience. Anything that is external is subject to the limited adjuncts of space, time, and causation. The externality of one being is his body-mind complex, or his psychophysical structure. The "I" based on that is confined to the ephemerality of the body-mind complex veiled by Avidya, or ignorance, and is unable to discriminate between the Ultimate Reality and temporality. This "I" becomes submerged in the vortex of the ego, which emanates from the body-mind complex. It derives its enthralment from that complex, being only oblivious of its transitory comIt remains trapped in a mind-controlled sensual deception that can change in an instant.gets more and more elongated, like a water bubble, as it dominates itself in the external manifest dimension, blurring the power of discrimination, detachment, discipline, dispassion, and devotion. The curse of attachment, emotion, and passion forces it to seek solace in the illusory melodramatic situation spread by the tentacles of Maya, or illusion. It loses track of the journey through the elevatory life process, becoming trapped in the perennial Samsara Chakra, which is the cycle of birth and death. The veil of ignorance obstructs the process of distinguishing between the real and the unreal. This illusion perpetuates a cycle of attachment and suffering, leading one to chase fleeting desires rather than seek deeper truths. Only through Self-enquiry and Self-knowledge can the veil of ignorance be unveiled. Through the dissolution of this ignorance, one can begin to glimpse the essence of one's true nature, transcending the limitations imposed by the body-mind complex.

1. Outline 

Everything is inside and nothing outside, so meditate, meditate, and meditate until there is drawn of Self-knowledge and Self-realisation. This line of thought has been repeated in scriptures and practised by the wise and sages. It is so; Brahman, or the Cosmic Self, is eternal, absolute, and all-encompassing, and nothing is outside of It. The Upanishads describe It as Satyam-Jnanam-Anantam Brahma, or Truth-Knowledge-Infinity (Taittiriya Upanishad, 2.1.1); Sat-Chit-Ananda, or Existence-Consciousness-Bliss (Tejobindu Upanisha, 3.11); Satyasya Satyam, or 'the Truth of truth' (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 2.1.20); Sarvam khalvidam Brahma, or All this is Brahman (Chandogya Upanishad, 3.14.1); and Vijnanam-Anandam-Brahma, or Knowledge-Bliss-Brahman (Brihadāranyaka Upanishad, 3.9.28(7)). By recognising this discerning nature of reality, one can discriminate by experiencing ephemeral diversity in one unifying Absolute Existence, thus realising eternal bliss and tranquillity. This discernment gravitates to becoming conscious of the consciousness, leading to the consciousness that the substratum of existence transcends the boundaries of individual evanescent sensual perception, cognition, and comprehension. This awareness encourages one to embrace a unifying conception, recognising the interrelatedness of all manifest and unmanifest being, non-being, phenomena, and noumena. By realising this, one may strive to realise that "I" is the undifferentiated Atman, or Self, the eternal, imperishable reality and essence of Brahman. It remains an ever-unmanifest, unattached observer, eternal, unchanging, witness, consciousness, and the essence of Brahman. It is the "seer of seeing" that perceives thoughts, feelings, emotions, empathy, and actions but is never involved, modified, or impacted by them. This "I" as pure consciousness is sentience that gives the manifest body-mind complex, or the psychophysical structure, its perceived life force and intelligence. This "I", as Atman, or Self, is not limited by limitations of space-time-causation. It is dimensionless, uncaused, and imperishable. The ego-centred "I" deriving from the body-mind complex is perishable, transient, and insentient, whereas the other "I", Atman, doesn't, as it is unborn and deathless. The ultimate aim of the life journey is to realise this "I", what the Upanishads describe as “Prajñānam Brahma", or "Consciousness is Brahmān" (Aitareya Upanishad, 3.3); “Ayam Ātmā Brahma", or "This Self is Brahman" (Mandukya Upanishad, 1.2); and “Tat Tvam Asi", or "Thou art That", which is the subtlest of all and is the Self of all this. It is the Truth. It is the Self. That thou art (Chāndogya Upanishad, 6.8.7); and “Aham Brahmāsmi", Brihadāranyaka Upanishad (1.4.10), Śukla Yajur Veda, refers to “I am Brahman". Sage Ashtavakra, in line with the established Vedantic tradition, asserts, "I am awareness" (Ashtavakra Gita, 1.9, 1.13–14, 11.6). Signifying, “I am not the body, nor is the body mine. I am awareness; one attains eternal bliss. It arises, contends the Ashtavakra Gita (11.6), when a person is in harmony with Brahman, the Universal Self, or the Cosmic Self and beyond the body-mind-intellect system. As an essential component of Reality, it transcends the body-mind-intellect system to become one with the Universal Self rather than being a byproduct of it. Whereas the "I" conception that is rooted in the body-mind complex is clouded with names and forms and tends towards manifestation and visibility. It is engulfed in egocentric thinking that the manifestation and visibility are more real and need to be nurtured and nourished to satisfy the insatiable desires emanating from that dimension. Its fundamental characteristic is volcanic desires that can never be fulfilled. Non-fulfilment of desires clouds the intellect, leading to anger and self-ruin. It tends to move outward to relish its sensual pleasures from the phenomenal domain that remains as transient as a bubble in the water. The more one moves towards externalities, the more multiplied is the progression of desires tending to cloud the thought process. It makes one rudderless, directionless, and motionless in the midst of a forest. This "I", according to sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda, builds a robust ego in the vacuum through the nineteen mouths (Five senses of knowledge are so called: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touching; Five organs of action do not give any independent knowledge, but they act: the hand that grasps, the speech that articulates words, the feet that cause movement, the generative organ, and the excretory organ act, but no new knowledge is given. Five Pranas, or vital energy: Prana (breathing exhale), Apana (inhale), Vyana (circulation), Udana (Jiva consciousness, our individualised consciousness, is pushed into a state of somnolence and separation of the vital body from the physical one), and Samana (operates through the navel region and causes the digestion of food); and four operations of the psyche, totalling nineteen. The psychic organ is Manas, or mind: Manas (indeterminate thinking), Buddhi or intellect (determinate thinking), Ahamkara or ego (individuality's affirmation or assertion), and Chitta (subconscious action). Any one of the nineteen can act at any time under special given conditions. Inasmuch as anyone can act at any time, it is virtually saying that all are acting at the same time. Therefore, we are actively, objectively conscious through the nineteen operative media of the individual consciousness in the waking condition. We are aware of the vast world of sensory perception, and we continue to interact with objects in this world through these media.

2. Scriptures 

"Arise, awake, and sleep not until the goal is reached" is a clarion call by Swami Vivekananda, an adaptation from Katha Upanishad (1.3.14): "Arise! Awake!" Approach greatness and learn.

Like the sharp edge of a razor is that path, so the wise say—challenging to tread and difficult to cross. In the Katha Upanishad, Lord Yama (the God of Death) speaks these words to the young boy Nachiketa. It is a call for a spiritual awakening—urging humanity to shed the slumber of ignorance, seek wise guidance, and realise the true, eternal, luminous, and effulgent nature of the soul. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (1.5.3-7) reveals that the individual ego identifies itself as the tripartite combination of mind as thinking, Speech as speaking, and vital energy or Prana as breathing, which collectively form the vehicle through which the Infinite Self expresses itself in the waking world. The most common desires (Kāma), resolve (Saṁkalpa), doubt (Vicikitsā), faith (Sraddhā), lack of faith (Aśraddhā), steadfastness (Dhṛti), restlessness (Adhṛti), modesty (hrī), intelligence (Dhī), and fear (Bhī); and perception: The verse points out that we only truly "see" or "hear" when our mind is present. If one's mind is elsewhere, they may look without seeing and listen without hearing. The mind ultimately registers even tactile sensations, such as being touched from behind. The Upanishads view time not as a fundamental, absolute reality, but as a mental construct and a measure of change within the realm of Maya (illusion). They teach that while the universe operates in cyclic, relative time, the ultimate goal is to transcend temporal relations and realise the eternal, timeless nature of consciousness. Brihadaranyak Upanishad (3.4.2) affirms, "Brahman is that which is immediate and direct—the Self that is within all." "You cannot see That which is the Seer of seeing; you cannot hear That which is the Hearer of hearing; you cannot think of That which is the Thinker of thought; you cannot know That which is the Knower of knowledge. This is your Self, which is within all; everything else but this is perishable." The Upanishads view time not as a fundamental, absolute reality, but as a mental construct and a measure of change within the realm of Maya (illusion). They teach that while the universe operates in cyclic, relative time, the ultimate goal is to transcend temporal relations and realise the eternal, timeless nature of consciousness. Brihadaranyak Upanishad (3.4.2) affirms, "Brahman is that which is immediate and direct—the Self that is within all." "You cannot see That which is the Seer of seeing; you cannot hear That which is the Hearer of hearing; you cannot think of That which is the Thinker of thought; you cannot know That which is the Knower of knowledge. This is your Self, which is within all; everything else but this is perishable. In Mandukya Upanishad, sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda (Lessons on the Upanishads – Mandukya Upanishad, Divine Life Society, Rishikesh) says time and space are projections of the mind. Our experience of time shifts entirely depending on our state of consciousness: the fast-paced reality of waking life (Vaishvanara) contrasts with the subjective, distorted timelines of the dream state (Taijasa). The Transcendent State, or Turiya, is the Ultimate Reality, known as Brahman or Atman, which exists entirely outside the past, present, and future. True immortality, as taught by Sage Yajnavalkya in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, is a state of being that is unconditional and independent of temporal relations.

 3. Remarks 

 Externality, or the phenomenal world, is nothing but names and forms. All these are not constant but limited, modified, reoriented, changed, and perished due to the limitations set by space, time, and causation. The more one is externalised, the more one is away from reasoning and judgement. One becomes more detached from judgements and reasoning as they become more externalised. In his commentary on the Chandogya Upanishad, Swami Vivekanand asserts that the phenomena we witness are merely names and forms, Nāma and Rūpa. They are characteristics that are placed on top of those that are fixed, unalterable, and constant. A person may go by a different name tomorrow, even if you call him by the same name today. Additionally, forms are constantly evolving. We never remain the same. However, these forms eventually disappear. Vedānta defines Satya, or Truth, as that which was, is, and will be. However, the names and shapes we encounter are fleeting. They can't be real because they appear one day and disappear the next. It possesses that Existence, Sat, as its Self and is the most exquisite of all things. That is the reality, the truth. All of these forms are in front of us. They are ever-evolving. However, the essence of everything, which is invisible to us, remains constant. And that's who we really are. The last thing Vedānta has to say is, "That thou art." Your true identity is that Self, that essence, that pure Spirit. When "form" and "name" are removed, what's left is that timeless, unalterable Reality. All of our problems begin with our form, our body. We feel distinct and different from others as soon as we identify with the body. "I'm a Brahmin." "I have knowledge. "I don't know." "I'm from such a place." Then you continue to add more statements, such as, "I am tall." "I'm short." "I am just." "I am dark." Take these out. Go to Brahman, the root, the essence. By shedding these labels and distinctions, we can begin to perceive our true nature beyond physical attributes and societal constructs. It is in this exploration of the self that we may discover a profound unity with all beings, transcending the illusions of separation that often plague our existence.

-Asutosh Satpathy