Consciousness and the Self III

The Supreme Consciousness, 

and How Metaphysical Reality Manifests itself

I was recently asked to try to explain some ideas about the subjective evolution of consciousness as seen by the followers of a branch of mysticism and devotion known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism.

In 1986, working at Guardian of Devotion Press, we successfully published a book titled, "Subjective Evolution of Consciousness," By Bhakti Rakshak Shridhar.  

Shridhar Mahārāja appreciated our work and had it translated into Bengali and published in India. 

Our book sold modestly in the United States. The 1990s were a time of great prosperity in America. Perhaps new ideas about introspection and spiritual life were not as welcomed as were new ideas on prosperity and success.  Our press could not survive the economic model of the 90s and the "Me" generation. 

Strangely, the book survived in translation. Given new openings in the Soviet Union just after the Gorbachov years of Perestroika, people took a new interest in "yoga" and spiritual ideas.

30 years after its publication, I was invited to Russia to explain some of the ideas in "Subjective Evolution."

I was astonished and pleased that anyone remembered the subject of that treatise published so long ago.

This year I was again invited by a great mystic and yoga Swāmī His Divine Grace B.B. Avadhuta Mahārāja to lecture on the conclusions of Subjective Evolution of Consciousness.

As a serious young man I worked hard on Subjective Evolution...

Before                                and                             After

...and it was good to have a chance to meet with my oldfriend and publishing partner, Bhakti Sudhir Goswami with whom I had many rewarding conversations on ontology and reality.  

In the course of my lecture series I faced a number of difficult questions. What is consciousness? How can we understand the relationship between infinite consciousness and the finite souls, according to the progessive bhatki yoga school. How does the metaphysical reality manifest itself? 

I was encouraged, once again by Avadhuta Maharaja, to continue writing on these themes. This blog article is an extension of that encouragement, and perhaps will be taken up as a book project at a later date. 


The idea that the universe is expanding is known as the Big Bang theory. The theory has also been applied to the spiritual universe, in the teachings of Śrī Caitanya. According to this analysis which amplifies the truths found in the Upanishads, the Absolute Infinite expands infinitely, first as the quadruple manifestations of Godhead and then in an infinite variety of spiritual worlds or Vaikuṇṭhas.

 

The individual conscious being known as jīva or individual soul is a “Separated Infinitesimal Particle” of the Absolute who expands Himself into an infinite variety of transcendental forms.

Krishna Dās Kavirāja Goswāmi’s records the teachings of Śrī Caitanya Mahāprabhu in his Caitanya Caritamṛta.

There, Śrī Caitanya elaborates on the inner meaning of the Oṁ Purnaṁ Vedic-Upanishadic verse, where it is written that the infinite has the power to expand infinitely.

He  teaches, "Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa is the nondual Absolute Truth, the Supreme Personality of Godhead. Although He is one, He maintains different personal expansions and energies for His pastimes.” [1]

 “The Supreme Personality of Godhead, Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa expands into many forms. Some are personal expansions, and some are separate expansions. Thus He performs pastimes in both the spiritual and material worlds. The spiritual worlds are the Vaikuṇṭha planets, and the material universes are brahmāṇḍas, gigantic globes governed by the creator (Brahmā).

“Expansions of the Godhead’s personal self (for example, the quadruple manifestations of Saṅkarṣaṇa, Pradyumna, Aniruddha, and Vāsudeva) descend as incarnations from Vaikuṇṭha to this world. The separated expansions (vibhinnāṁśa) are living entities. Although they are expansions of Kṛṣṇa they are counted among His different potencies.” [2]

Bhaktivedānta Swāmi Prabhupāda in a taped lecture available here: https://prabhupadavani.org/transcriptions/661203ccny/ explains this teaching from Caitanya Caritamṛta further:

“Here Lord Caitanya is describing about the various forms of Kṛṣṇa. This is very important subject. How Kṛṣṇa is all-pervading, He is describing.

kṛṣṇera svarūpa-ananta, vaibhava-apāra

cic-chakti, māyā-śakti, jīva-śakti āra

Kṛṣṇera svarūpa ananta. The transcendental forms of Kṛṣṇa are innumerable, vaibhava, and His opulence, that is also innumerable. Nobody can estimate. How many forms are there of Kṛṣṇa or how much opulent He is, nobody can estimate; nobody can measure. This is inconceivable. The first proposition. Cic-chakti māyā-śakti jīva-śakti āra. And His potencies are also unlimited, out of which, three potencies are generally accepted = cit-śakti, spiritual potency; material potency; and marginal potency. These three potencies I have described many times. Cit-śakti, the spiritual potency, is a manifestation of the spiritual world, and material potency is a manifestation of this material world, and the marginal potency, we are, we living entities.

 

Śrīla Prabhupāda continues, “We are marginal potency. Why it is marginal? Because although we belong to the spiritual potency, but we have got tendency to come into contact of this material potency. Therefore it is called marginal, "this way or that way." That a slight independence which is there in every living entity, he can use that, and he may select either to live in the spiritual potency or in the material potency. Therefore the living entities are called marginal potency. So parāsya śaktir vividhaiva śrūyate [Cc. Madhya 13.65, purport]. Although the energies of the Supreme Lord are innumerable---nobody can count or measure---but they are divided into three.

vaikuṇṭha, brahmāṇḍa-gaṇa-śakti-kārya haya

svarūpa-śakti śakti-kāryera-kṛṣṇa samāśraya

“Now, Lord Caitanya says, Vaikuṇṭha. Just like this universe is a jagad-aṇḍa, is a big round ball, aṇḍa. Aṇḍa means egglike, just like egg is round. Therefore it is called brahmāṇḍa. It is a round ball. Every planet is round, and the universe is also round, and the Vaikuṇṭhas are also round, all round. Vaikuṇṭha, brahmāṇḍa-gaṇa-śakti-kārya haya. So all these universes, the universe which we experience... There are innumerable universes that we cannot see. 

We can see only one universe, and in one universe there are innumerable planets. Similarly, there are innumerable universes, and in each universe there are innumerable planets. This information we get from Brahma-saṁhitā.

yasya prabhā prabhavato jagad-aṇḍa-koṭi-

koṭiṣv aśeṣa-vasudhādi vibhūti-bhinnam

tad brahma niṣkalam anantam aśeṣa-bhūtaṁ

govindam ādi-puruṣaṁ tam ahaṁ bhajāmi

[Bs. 5.40]

That brahma-jyotir, in that brahma-jyotir there are all these universes and Vaikuṇṭhas. All, they are resting in that brahma-jyotir. Just like in the sunshine so many planets are resting, similarly, in the brahma-jyotir, the personal shining of Lord Kṛṣṇa, in that shining which is called brahma-jyotir, all the universes and Vaikuṇṭha planets or universes, they are all resting. And the universes, the material universes are only one-fourths in quantity of the Vaikuṇṭha universes. All the universes taken together of this material world, it is only one-fourths in comparison to the other Vaikuṇṭha, or spiritual, universes. Vaikuṇṭha, brahmāṇḍa-gaṇa-śakti-kārya haya.

Now, these universes and the brahmāṇḍas, or the Vaikuṇṭhas, they are manifestation of the energy of the Supreme Lord.

God is all-pervading. "God is all-pervading" does not mean God has lost His identification. This is the mistake of the impersonalists. "Because God is everywhere, God is all-pervading; therefore there should not be any particular existence of God." This is impersonalism. But this is material thought. They do not study Vedic literature properly.

In the Vedic literature it is said, pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation]. Just like I have several times explained before you that in the spiritual absolute identity, one minus one equal to one and one plus one equal to one.

So although innumerable energies are coming out of the supreme body of the Supreme Lord, still He is full.

There is no loss of energy. Just like we can have some material example = the sun. We do not know for how many millions of years the sunshine and temperature is coming out of the sun planet, but still the sun is the same. There is no loss of temperature. So if in a material object this is possible, that in spite of distributing heat and light from the sun disk for millions and millions of years, the sun disk is still of the same temperature, there is no loss of temperature---this is a material thing---so why in the spiritual body of the Supreme there will be any loss?

This is a material idea, that "Because God has become all-pervading, therefore He has lost Himself." Why He should lose His identity? This is confirmed in the Vedic literature = pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evavaśiṣyate. If you take from the... He is so full that if you take the whole thing from Him, still, He is whole. Pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate.

So as described here, kṛṣṇa svarūpa ananta vaibhava apāra. So although He is transmitting innumerable energies and although He is expanding Himself in innumerable forms, still, He is one. Still, He is the same and one.

That is the spiritual conception, or absolute conception. Absolute is not relative. "Because something has being taken away, therefore it is something less"---it is relative. It is not absolute. This idea is relative.

I have got in my pocket ten dollars. So I have taken two dollars. Now it is eight dollars. This is relative truth. This is not absolute idea.

Oṁ Purnam adaḥ purṇam idam...

Absolute idea is that pūrṇasya pūrṇam ādāya pūrṇam evāvaśiṣyate [Īśo Invocation]. Avaśiṣyate means the balance is still full. Whatever you may take, the balance is still.

daśame daśamaṁ lakṣyam

āśritāśraya-vigraham

śrī-kṛṣṇākhyaṁ paraṁ dhāma

jagad-dhāma namāmi tat

In the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam there are twelve cantos. In the Tenth Canto the appearance of Kṛṣṇa and His activities are mentioned, in the Tenth Canto.

Before studying Krishna's pastimes in the 10th Canto it is important to understand the ontology of the first 9 Cantos.

And before Lord Kṛṣṇa's activities and life is mentioned, there are nine cantos. So why?

Now, daśame daśamaṁ lakṣyam āśritāśraya-vigraham. Now, to understand Kṛṣṇa, we have to understand what is this creation, how this creation is going on, what are the activities, what are spiritual knowledge, what is philosophy, what is renunciation, what is liberation. All these things we have to learn very nicely. After learning these perfectly, then you can understand Kṛṣṇa. So in the nine cantos of the Śrīmad-Bhāgavatam, all these different nine manifestation of His energies are described.

If we can understand... Just like if we can study the sunshine, the energy of the sun, then we can estimate the value of sun = "Oh, what sort of temperature is there." So if you want to study God, if you want to know God, then you must first of all study His energies. God is all-pervading by His energy.

You study. Just the scientists, what they are studying? They are studying a portion of the energy of God, only a portion of the energy of God. That is also not perfectly. So the energy is so vast and immense that one cannot study even the energy. Therefore those who are studying about God, after finishing the study of the energies, they are at a loss to understand how so much energy can be emanated from the person.

Therefore they cannot conceive any personal idea of God. The energy is so vast and immense that they are bewildered in the energy. And how such great amount of energy can emanate from a person they cannot conceive, because they compare with their own energy. Because I am limited... I have got this body, I have got my personality, but my energies are limited. But we cannot understand that the Unlimited has got unlimited energy.”

The teachings of Caitanya Mahāprabhu as further explained by Śrīla Prabhupāda are subtle and require not only thought and meditation in bhakti-yoga, but spiritual dedication to further realize.  Let’s return to a more “Upanishadic” version.

Gitopanishad confirms this version of the eternal transcendental nature of the soul as follows, where Bhagavan Śrī Krishna affirms: “The living entities in this world are My eternal atomic parts. Because of conditioned life, they are struggling hard with the six senses, including the mind.” [3]

Krishna continues his discourse on the eternal transcendental nature of the jiva

“For the soul there is never birth or death. Having once been, he never ceases to be. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing, undying, primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.” [4]

The soul can never be cut into pieces, nor can he be burned by fire, nor

moistened by water, nor withered by the wind. [5]

“This individual soul is unbreakable and insoluble, and can be never be burned nor dried. He is everlasting, all-pervading, unchangeable, immovable, and eternally the same.[6]

It is important to keep in mind the relationship between the infinitesimal particle of consciousness, or jīva ātma, and the Supreme Soul or Paramātmā. According to the Upanishadic version, we can understand the jivātmā as a subatomic particle of a ray of Paramātmā, the Supreme soul.

“As innumerable sparks emanate from a fire, so all the jīvas with their particular characteristics emanate from the Paramātma, along with the gods, planets, animate and inanimate beings.” [7]

In his explanation of Vedānta before the followers and sannyāsīs of the Śankarācārya school, Caitanya Mahāprabhu began his refutation of Advaita monism with an explanation of this idea from the Upanishads:

“The Supreme Absolute Truth, or Bhagavan Śrī Kṛṣṇa is like a great blazing fire, and the living entities are like small sparks of that fire. [8]

Śrīla Prabhupāda comments in his purport on this verse: "Although sparks and a big fire are both fire and both have the power to burn, the burning power of the fire and that of the spark are not the same. Why should one artificially try to become like a big fire although by constitution he is like a small spark? It is due to ignorance. One should therefore understand that neither the Supreme Personality of Godhead nor the small spark-like living entities have anything to do with matter, but when the spiritual spark comes in contact with the material world his fiery quality is extinguished. That is the position of the conditioned souls. Because they are in touch with the material world, their spiritual quality is almost dead, but because these spiritual sparks are all Kṛṣṇa's parts and parcels, as the Lord states in the Bhagavad-gītā (mamaivāḿśaḥ), they can revive their original position by getting free from material contact. 

This is pure philosophical understanding. In the Bhagavad-gītā the spiritual sparks are declared to be sanātana (eternal); therefore the material energy, māyā, cannot affect their constitutional position.

Someone may argue, "Why is there a need to create the spiritual sparks?" The answer can be given in this way: Since the Absolute Personality of Godhead is omnipotent, He has both unlimited and limited potencies. This is the meaning of omnipotent. To be omnipotent, He must have not only unlimited potencies but limited potencies also. Thus to exhibit His omnipotency He displays both. The living entities are endowed with limited potency although they are part of the Lord. The Lord displays the spiritual world by His unlimited potencies, whereas by His limited potencies the material world is displayed. In the Bhagavad-gītā (7.5) the Lord says:

apareyam itas tv anyāḿ prakṛtiḿ viddhi me parām

jīva-bhūtāḿ mahā-bāho yayedaḿ dhāryate jagat

"Besides these inferior energies, O mighty-armed Arjuna, there is another, superior energy of Mine, which comprises all living entities who are exploiting the resources of this material, inferior nature." The jīva-bhūta, the living entities, control this material world with their limited potencies. 

Generally, people are bewildered by the activities of scientists and technologists.

"Due to māyā they think that there is no need of God and that they can do everything and anything, but actually they cannot. Since this cosmic manifestation is limited, their existence is also limited. 

Everything in this material world is limited, and for this reason there is creation, sustenance and dissolution. However, in the world of unlimited energy, the spiritual world, there is neither creation nor destruction.

"If the Personality of Godhead did not possess both limited and unlimited energies, He could not be called omnipotent. 

Aṇor aṇīyān mahato mahīyān: "The Lord is greater than the greatest and smaller than the smallest." 

He is smaller than the smallest in the form of the living entities and greater than the greatest in His form of Kṛṣṇa. If there were no one to control, there would be no meaning to the conception of the supreme controller (īśvara), just as there is no meaning to a king without his subjects. 

If all the subjects became king, there would be no distinction between the king and an ordinary citizen. Thus for the Lord to be the supreme controller there must be a creation to control. The basic principle for the existence of the living entities is called cid-vilāsa, or spiritual pleasure. 

The omnipotent Lord displays His pleasure potency as the living entities. The Lord is described in the Vedānta-sūtra (1.1.12) as ānanda-mayo 'bhyāsāt. He is by nature the reservoir of all pleasures, and because He wants to enjoy pleasure, there must be energies to give Him pleasure or supply Him the impetus for pleasure. This is the perfect philosophical understanding of the Absolute Truth."

There is a very clear line here between the ancient wisdom teachings of the Upanishads, the Vedantic interpretation of Śrī Caitanya and his followers and the explanation given by Bhatkivedānta Swāmi. 

Consciousness exists. God exists. God is Great. We are small. The living entities who emanate from the Supreme Reality do so as particles of particles of spiritual energy. As such they are like subatomic spiritual particles.

The idea that the jīva is conscious atomic spiritual energy is reasserted again and again in the Upanishads wherein it is explained that the soul is infinitesimal:

Here’s the Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad: “If we divide the tip of a hair into one hundred parts and then take one part and divide this into another one hundred parts, that ten-thousandth part is the dimension of the living entity. And this living entity is capable to attain the unlimited Lord.”[9]  

Of course the uppermost tip of a hair may be understood metaphorically to mean mathematical point which recedes infinitesimally. 

Dividing the infinitesimal thousands of times is a mathematical impossibility. It is not that the soul may be identified physically through an electron microscope by splitting hairs. The point is to develop our understanding of how insignificant the tiny soul is in comparison with the absolute infinite.

By recognition of our smallness, we may come to a higher understanding, one that involves humility and ultimately, surrender.

The spiritual teacher who initiated me on this path, on this journey to surrender was His Divine Grace Bhakti Rakshak Śrīdara Dev Goswāmī.

Śrīdhara Mahārāja refers to the above quote from the Upanishads as follows in his teachings he says of this calculation of one ten thousandth of the tip of a hair: 

"It has been suggested for us to understand our position. That there is one hair, if you cut the hair into a hundred pieces, and again one piece into a hundred pieces, again that piece to a hundred … infinitely small, infinitesimal. Try to realise you, then you will come to the reality. "Oh, I am so small. Then how can I stand without some help from outside?"

So your real inner hankering will come for atma-nivedanam. "I want a support, I want a support. Otherwise I can't stand independently. I am so small." That sincere, intense desire, that will takes us to some support, atma-nivedanam.

First dainyam (humility), to find out the real meanness of the self, and necessarily there will come a natural search for some support, atma-nivedanam. Then goptrtve varanam (embracing the Lord's guardianship), and when we get some sort of support, most earnestly to embrace that. "That without You I am nowhere so I can't leave You, goptrtve varanam, and You must protect me."[10]

 

---

[1] অদ্ৱয-জ্ঞান-তত্ত্ৱ কৃষ্ণ — স্ৱযḿ ভগৱান্

ঽস্ৱরূপ-শক্তিঽ রূপে তাńর হয অৱস্থান advaya-jñāna-tattva kṛṣṇa — svayaḿ bhagavān

'svarūpa-śakti' rūpe tāńra haya avasthāna

[2] স্ৱাংশ-ৱিভিনাংশ-রূপে হঞা ৱিস্তার অনন্ত 

ৱৈকুণ্ঠ-ব্রহ্মাণ্ডে করেন ৱিহার স্ৱাংশ-ৱিস্তার চতুর্-ৱ্যুহ, 

অৱতার-গণ ৱিভিন্নাংশ জীৱ তাঞ্র শক্তিতে গণন

svāṁśa-vibhināṁśa-rūpe hañā vistāra ananta 

vaikuṇṭha-brahmāṇḍe karena vihāra svāṁśa-vistāra catur-vyuha, 

avatāra-gaṇa vibhinnāṁśa jīva tāñra śaktite gaṇana  (Cc. Madhya 22.8-9)

he creator (Brahmā).

Brahmā's.  d, Bhagavan Śrī

[3] ममैवांशो जीव-लोके जीव-भूतः सनातनः 

मनः-षष्ठानीन्द्रियाणि प्रकृति-स्थानि कर्षति

mamaivāṁśo jīva-loke jīva-bhūtaḥ sanātanaḥ 

manaḥ-ṣaṣṭhānīndriyāṇi prakṛti-sthāni karṣati 

(Bhagavad-gītā 15.7)

[4] न जायते म्रियते वा कदाचिन्

नायं भूत्वा भविता वा न भूयः

अजो नित्यः शाश्वतो ऽयं पुराणो 

न हन्यते हन्यमाने शरीरे

na jāyate mriyate vā kadācin

nāyaṁ bhūtvā bhavitā vā na bhūyaḥ

ajo nityaḥ śāśvato 'yaṁ purāṇo 

na hanyate hanyamāne śarīre

(Bhagavad-gītā 2.20)

[5] नैनं छिन्दन्ति शस्त्राणि नैनं दहति पावकः

न चैनं क्लेदयन्त्य् आपो न शोषयति मारुतः

nainaṁ chindanti śastrāṇi nainaṁ dahati pāvakaḥ

na cainaṁ kledayanty āpo na śoṣayati mārutaḥ 

(Bhagavad-gītā 2.23)

[6] अच्छेद्यो ऽयम् अदाह्यो ऽयम् अक्लेद्यो ऽशोष्य एव च

नित्यः सर्व-गतः स्थाणुर् अचलो ऽयं सनातनः

acchedyo 'yam adāhyo 'yam akledyo 'śoṣya eva ca

nityaḥ sarva-gataḥ sthāṇur acalo 'yaṁ sanātanaḥ

(Bhagavad-gītā 2.24)

[7]

यथाग्नेः क्षुद्रा विस्फुलिङ्गा व्युच्चरन्त्येवम् एवास्मादात्मनः

सर्वे प्राणाः सर्वे लोकाः सर्वे देवाः सर्वाणि भूतानि व्युच्चरन्ति

yathāgneḥ kṣudrā visphuliṅgā vyuccarantyevam evāsmādātmanaḥ

sarve prāṇāḥ sarve lokāḥ sarve devāḥ sarvāṇi bhūtāni vyuccaranti

(Bṛhad-āraṇyaka Upaniṣad 2.1.20)

[8] ঈশ্ৱরের তত্ত্ৱ যেন জ্ৱলিত জ্ৱলন জিৱের স্ৱরূপ যৈছে স্ফুলিঙ্গের কণ

īśvarera tattva yena jvalita jvalana jivera svarūpa yaiche sphuliṅgera kaṇa   (Cc. Ādi 7.116)

[9]

বালাগ্র-শত ভাগস্য শতধা কল্পিতস্য চ

ভাগো জিৱঃ স ৱিজ্ঞেযঃ স চানন্ত্যায কাপ্তে

bālāgra-śata bhāgasya śatadhā kalpitasya ca

bhāgo jivaḥ sa vijñeyaḥ sa cānantyāya kāpte (Śvetāśvatara Upaniṣad 5.9) 

[10] Quote courtesy of Julie Cluer https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=julie%20cluer%20posts