The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 3.3 - Swami Krishnananda.

 

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Saturday 16, Aug 2025, 06:10.
Books
Upanishads
The Philosophy of the Panchadasi: 3.3.
Chapter 3: Discrimination of the Five Sheaths 3.
2.The Atman
Swami Krishnananda.

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2.The Atman

There is nothing that one can know, other than the sheaths, and the sheaths are not the reality. But the fact of there being an experiencer of the states of sheaths, which are all relative, cannot be denied. This is the Atman. The self-luminous Atman, being the knower of all things, cannot be known by anything else. The Upanishad says: 'Who can know Him by whom everything else is known? Who can know the knower?' The mind, which is the means of knowing, is not to make the Atman its object, because in the Atman the opposition between the seer and the seen is abolished. The mind can know only what is knowable as an external object, but it cannot know what cannot be objectified, and the Atman is unknowable as pure experience free from the opposition of the knower and the known. Its unknowability therefore does not indicate its non-existence. Though it is not known, knowledge does not cease. It, the unknown ever, knows everything. The Atman is different from the known and unknown, the known being the whole of visible creation and the unknown, the cause of all things, Prakriti. The Atman is above both. It is not to be touched either by the mind or the senses. The Jiva is apt to complain that it does not know the Atman, even as one may doubt and say whether one has a tongue or not. To recognise the Atman-principle in all things, it is necessary to ignore the objectness involved in the process of knowledge, and whenever there is perception or knowledge, every such factor in the capacity of an object should be abandoned, and only the illuminating light of consciousness should be taken for the purpose of analysis and contemplation. This kind of Self-establishment is Atmasakshatkara or realisation of the Atman.

That which remains after the negation of all conditioning factors, such as the five sheaths, is one's own Self. It is not a void because it knows that it is, and that is Absolute. There is such a thing as self both in worldly parlance and in the universe of philosophy. In ordinary life, by the self one means the personality of the individual, but in the philosophic sense, it is the ultimate metaphysical reality beyond which there is nothing. There cannot be any doubt or dispute about the ultimate Self, for there would be no one to conduct the dispute or argument. No one doubts oneself or denies oneself, and hence the scripture says that one who denies Brahman denies himself, meaning thereby that Brahman cannot be denied. The Atman or Brahman may not be known as an object, but, it being one's own self, cannot be gainsaid. It is not to be considered as either this or that, because we generally consider what is known by the senses as this, and the Atman is not known by the senses. We consider what is remote as that, and the Atman is not remote, because it is our own self. Hence it cannot be pointed out by any determining article such as this, that, etc. That it is universal, explains everything.

Though the Atman is unknown in an objective sense, it is known in the minimum experience or Aparokshanubhava. It is described in the scripture as Satyam, Jnanam, Anantam, truth, knowledge, infinity. Truth is that which is not contradicted by any other experience. The witnessing consciousness can stand apart as the observer of the cessation of all phenomena, as in the cessation of the experiences of waking, dreaming and deep sleep under different circumstances; but there cannot be a negation or cessation of the Atman itself, because there would then be no observer or knower of the cessation of the Atman. Nor can it be said that there is no observing principle at all, because there is no possibility of an experience without even the barest minimum of intelligence, as when all the contents in a house are removed, something viz., space, remains within, as that which cannot be removed. So, also, when everything of the nature of an object is set aside as the Anatman (not-self), something remains as that which cannot be further emptied out. That is the ultimate minimum of consciousness. Thus, even the total negation of every experience should land finally in something positive and capable of being experienced. The scripture, therefore, having described the nature of all things, takes us along the path of the realisation of the stupendous spiritual Being, by negating all that which is not. Whatever can be designated as this or not this is transcended, and that which cannot be so designated is taken as Reality. Brahman is thus known to be Sat, or Being, and Chit, or experience and consciousness, unconditioned by space, time, causation or objectness (Desa-kala-vastu-parichheda-rahita). Brahman is unlimited in these three ways. When the ideation of creation is withdrawn, the network of space, time and causation also falls from experience. Isvaratva or the idea of God and Jivatva or the idea of the individual arise on account of the perception of the difference between the seer and the seen in this world and the consequent experience of the creator of both the Jiva and the world. These concepts are correlative and will come to a naught with the rise of Self-realisation or Atma-Jnana. (Mantras -11to37).

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Next
Isvara and Jiva
Continued

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