WHO AM I? CONCEPT OF CONSCIOUSNESS

[Pravin Kumar]

Who Am I?
Concept of Consciousness

According to the Brahma Kumaris’ philosophy, consciousness is an essential and inherent attribute of the metaphysical energy called Soul, different from the organic and inorganic matter, body and the brain. As electricity is known by various names depending upon its different manifestations such as light, power, heat and elector-magnetic force, so also Consciousness manifests itself in various forms and is named as Mind, Intellect, Memory, Emotion, Sanskāra (Impression) and so on. The conscient soul functions through consciousness; but the brain limits consciousness and enables it to have an experience of only three-dimensional objects, while without this limiting faculty, the Self can have multi-dimensional experience and exceptional insight.

The soul does have an aura which appears in the form of subtle body, having different brightness depending upon the degree of its purity. The Self or soul is a point of light which is spiritual in nature, divine in its original potential scintillating with seven divine qualities – Knowledge, Purity, Happiness, Peace, Love, Bliss and Power, and is different from the mundane light.

Souls (Ātmā) originally dwell in the metaphysical Soul-world (Brahma-loka), i.e. far beyond this material world with the Parent or Supreme Soul (Paramātmā or Īśvara) in the incorporeal, inactive, thoughtless and calm state. But when they come into matter and take birth in the form of bodies, they become known as individual souls (Jīvātmā). Within body, soul resides in between the two eye-brows, the central point of the Hypothalamus, Peneal and Pituitary glands and from there it controls the brain and the whole body.

Souls are plural and are not parts of God. All souls are eternal sons/daughters of God. In the state of liberation or release, the soul does not merge into God, who has his separate identity. God or Paramātmā is also a soul, a point of spiritual energy, but He is supreme among all souls and is not bounded by any action (karma) and its reactions. He is beyond the limitation of birth and death. He is omnipotent, omniscient but is not omnipresent or all-pervasive entity like Brahman of the monist philosophy. Souls are unique, indivisible and eternal.

All the knowledge, namely science, is a result of a person’s abilities that are only manifestations of consciousness at various levels. Consciousness is the first or the prime reality; for, without it, all the realities and laws - physical, chemical, mechanical etc. would remain unknown. It is consciousness that knows and can know, or learns and can learn. Consciousness is the knower (Jñātā), while the material forms of reality or the events and phenomena belong to the realm of known or knowable (Jñeya). The use and purposes of material forms are determined by the knower, consciousness, and it is consciousness that experiences physical things.

So there is vast difference between ‘I or Self’ and ‘Matter’ i.e. material, physical, phenomenal or transient. It is ‘I’ or ‘Consciousness’ that makes continuity possible in life and without it, all would be meaningless, purposeless, useless and worthless.

Consciousness is not observable and quantifiable; hence it is out of the scope of science. Therefore, either science should enlarge its scope or it can be studied in the discipline called ‘Spiritual Science’ or ‘Meta Science’. ‘Consciousness’ is the other name for the ‘Self’. We give it the label ‘consciousness’ in order to distinguish it from all that which doesn’t have ‘consciousness,’ i.e. which cannot think, judge, remember, analyze, focus, decide and do such other mental, intellectual or emotional activities. Each one of us is an individual ‘Self’.

Consciousness has a moral dimension. All our actions or efforts have some motives underlying them and we employ some means to reach our goals or to attain certain ends. Motives determine our attitudes and outlook and influence our behaviours that are related to Values or ethical principles. In other words, Consciousness has another aspect, namely ‘Conscience’.

As such, it can be maintained that Consciousness or spiritual energy is quite different from the material forms of energy manifested in the mundane world. The super-mundane entity soul, self, spirit or psyche is eternally existent and conscient in its nature and acts and reacts to the stimuli and also thinks, feels and reaps the fruits of its actions.

Therefore, one should always endeavour to recognize one’s own true identity - divine, pure, conscient, infinitesimal point of metaphysical energy giving up identification with the physical or the material . . . then that paves the way towards perfection and by acquiring the completely true knowledge of Self, Supreme Self and the Universe, one should approach to a holistic world-view.