TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0336 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 4.02 | BRAHMAN AS CONSCIOUSNESS OR INTELLIGENCE ||

What is , then , the nature of this Absolute Existence ?

The inmost being in us , our own existence itself , shall solve the problem .

We find that we cannot make a distinction between our being and our consciousness .

To think of being as the real , and yet as different from consciousness , seems to be impossible .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0337 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Just as we cannot deny being , so also we cannot deny consciousness .

We can deny the objects and states of consciousness , but we can never deny consciousness itself .

In every one of our attempts to do so , it asserts its existence before we even begin to think properly .

Consciousness is the most positive of facts , the datum of all experience .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0338 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Consciousness and the Absolute transcends all limits of space , time and causality .

Consciousness is never limited , for the very consciousness of the fact of limitation is proof of its transcendental unlimitedness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0339 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

This Universal Consciousness is not to be confused with the individual’s ego-consciousness .

Rather , it is Pure Awareness .

Ego-consciousness necessitates a modification in a certain fashion , and hence it is only a mode of becoming and not being in its Fullness .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0340 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Consciousness in the sense of Reality does not imply that outside it something must exist as its object .

It is only in empirical cognition that consciousness needs an object .

In the highest condition , the existence and the content of consciousness are one and the same .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0341 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Absolute knows itself without any process of knowing .

Consciousness is absolute Intelligence , unlimited Self- luminosity .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0342 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Even in all the states of waking , dreaming , deep sleep , swooning , etc , the Self ever remains as the indispensable and indisputable immediacy of Consciousness , a witness of all states .

Unaffected and unaltered , it remains in its purity , as the eternal principle in all states of experience .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0343 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Ultimate Existence is identical with Infinite Consciousness and not individual consciousness .

The Real is Impersonal , and the individual is personal .

TROTA | CHAPTER 4 | SEL0344 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

" Brahman is Consciousness . " ( Ait . Up . III . 3 )
" This Purusha is Self-luminous . " ( Brih . Up . IV . 3 . 9 . 14 )
" The Self alone is its light . " ( Brih . Up . IV . 3 . 6 )

" Through what can one be conscious of IT by whom alone one is conscious of this everything ? Through what can one know the Knower ? " ( Brih . Up . II . 4 . 14 )