VEDANTA—

OBSERVER AND OBSERVED

Vedanta says there are only two things in the universe, the Observer and everything
else. The Observer has many names in Vedanta – Sakshi (Witness), Brahman, Atman,
Self, the ‘Real I’ are a few. Everything else is the Observed and is also called Prakrti or
Nature, with names and forms. It includes the universe and all its physical and non-
physical (subtle) content.
WHERE IS THE LINE WHERE THE OBSERVER ENDS AND THE OBSERVED STARTS ?
If you ask this question, the most common answer would be that the human body is the
observer and everything else which is outside the body is the observed. According to
Vedanta this is INCORRECT and this wrong understanding is the major cause of
SUFFERING in the world.
So where is this fine line of separation between the Observer and Observed? The easiest
way to understand this is to apply a simple rule – If you know something you cannot be
that thing. If you see/know a book, you are not the book. If you apply this rule to
everything, you will soon understand the difference between the Observer and
Observed.
The tree, car, animal or any external object is known to you so it cannot be you.
Your hands, legs, nose etc are known to you so they cannot be you
All your thoughts, emotions, feeling, memories or anything inside your mind are known
to you so they cannot be you..THEY ARE YOURS THEY ARE NOT YOU.
Your sense of individuality or ego, the feeling of individual ‘I’ is known to you. ‘I am rich’,
‘I am hungry’, ‘I am a father’, the ‘I’ in all these examples is known to you, and so you
cannot be that.
What is left after this analysis is the actual Observer of all the events and this Observer is
the Real You. It is not easy to define this Observer because IT IS NOT A THING OR AN
OBJECT , it is the SUBJECT. It is the aware- full Observer of whatever is happening in
your mind. It must be understood that all the events which are being observed are
happening in the mind. These events are not happening out there..
WHERE THERE IS NO MIND , THERE IS NO UNIVERSE.
There is an Observer and also there are things to be observed in the mind . How does the
observer actually observe and know which and what things/objects are there in the
mind? There has to be a third element called observing, which lets the observer know
the contents of the mind. This is the intelligence or consciousness in the mind which
completes the experience we have in the mind of which we are aware.
OBSERVER: The Observer is pure Awareness and is aware of what is happening in the
mind. It does not do anything except witness
OBSERVED: These are insentient objects or ideas within the mind. We are going to
discuss this further later on.
OBSERVING: The process of Observing makes the mind Conscious and fills the objects
within the mind with sentiency so that the Observer can witness those objects. When
Awareness or Consciousness is added to any object it can only then be observed. If this
is missing, then the Observer will not be able to see this object.
The basic quality of the Observer or Brahman is Sat Chit Ananda
Sat = Unborn, Uncaused, Unchanging Self (I)
Chit = Awareness
Ananda = Bliss
This means the Observer is eternal , never changes , never born ,it knows itself and emits
a light of awareness. When the mind and its contents come in contact with this light of
Awareness, the mind becomes Conscious. In fact the mind is completely filled with this
Awareness/Consciousness. its essential nature is bliss..mind which is outwardly and not
aware of this awareness itself suffers..
MIND IS NOT SELF AWARE , SELF IS SELF AWARE..
Here is an appropriate quote from Nisargadatta Maharaj, who explains the difference
between Awareness and Consciousness,
“Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless, uncaused, and
unsupported, without parts, without change. Consciousness is on contact, a reflection
against a surface, a state of duality. There can be no consciousness without awareness,
but there can be awareness without consciousness, as in deep sleep. Awareness is
absolute, consciousness is relative to its content; CONSCIOUSNESS IS ALWAYS OF
SOMETHING. Consciousness is partial and changeful; awareness is total, changeless,
calm and silent. And it is the common matrix of every experience.” (from “I Am That”,
chapter 11)
UNDERSTANDING ' VRITTI' ( WAVES) AND MAYA ( ILLUSION)
( Holographic universe theory of science is equivalent to Maya concept of Vedanta)
The subtle body in a human being is that part of us which is not physical. Our thought,
emotions and feelings, in short, our mind is the main component of the subtle body.. The
mind or the subtle body breaks down the unity( yoga/samadhi) of the seed body and
creates a DUALITY by the separation between the subject and object. According to
Vedanta, the following are the two MAIN components of the mind:
1)BUDDHI /Intellect: This is the seat of the SUBJECT part of the seed body. Buddhi being
the subject, it gives you the feeling of being ‘I AM’. Buddhi is the doer of actions and also
the experiencer of actions.
2)MANAS: This the seat of the OBJECT part of the seed body. The objects in the Manas
are represented by WAVES or ‘Vrittis’. These waves are made of “mind stuff” or subtle
elements. The waves in the mind are like the waves or ripples we see in a swimming
pool. They are standing waves bouncing within the mind. These waves are still in the
potential form. The waves or ‘vrittis’ in the Manas come from different sources.
– The seed body germinates itself and creates waves within the Manas
– The COSMIC Mind is the sum TOTAL of all the waves in the universe. The INDIVIDUAL
mind only perceives a PART of the universe and only those waves are in the individual
manas.
– When you are thinking or day dreaming, waves come from your stored memories.
Every living and nonliving object has a wave form; it could be from your seed body, a
part of the cosmic mind or your memory .It must be clearly understood that there is fully
functioning subtle universe. This subtle universe is in vritti or WAVE FORM. Different
wave patterns represent different living and non-living objects.
Main role of the Atman/self is to observe what is happening in the mind. The mind is full
of complex wave ‘vritti’ patterns. So how does Atma ‘read’ the wave patterns in the
mind? Vedanta teaches that this is a 2 step procedure. This is like the COLLAPSING OF
THE WAVE FUNCTION in quantum physics.
Step 1: VRITTI VYAPTI: This means “wrapping” of the vritti or wave by the mind. When a
vritti is formed in the mind, the mind goes into its “memory database” and checks what
this vritti represents. The mind then takes the shape of that object. At this stage it only
takes the shape of what the wave represents. It does not have any content. It is like a
wire diagram with no content.
Step 2: PHALA VYAPTI: Phala means fruit but a better translation would be the yielding
of a result from the wrapping. The shape of the mind object comes in the presence of
Atman, which is the light of Awareness. When anything comes in the presence of Atman
it becomes conscious and this “wire diagram” of the mind object is now filled with
Consciousness. You can be aware of something only when it is conscious. With this step
Atman/Observer is now fully aware of the subtle objects in the mind.
According to Vedanta, these subtle objects in the mind are PROJECTED out as the
physical universe . This projection power has been called as MAYA SHAKTI in vedanta. (
maya= illusion).This way the subtle objects become gross objects and gross SENSES
make it FEEL like gross universe..Maya Shakti is the CREATIVE power of
Atman/self/observer and it is resident within the MANAS part of the mind. This
powerful SHAKTI is within each one of us. It first creates the space time framework and
then places all gross objects within this framework.
This projection power has been described with different names by different traditions ,
emotionally and intellectually - SHAKTI , PRAKRITI , MAYA are all pointing towards the
same thing..
We can all see the gross universe, but the subtle world is really where all the action
takes place. The gross universe is only a projection of the subtle universe. The subtle
universe is like the software program, which in the presence of the projector, projects
the movie on the screen. The gross universe is totally dependent upon the subtle
universe. This is the reason why atom is empty and matter is a WAVE FUNCTION ..this is
the reason why science is coming up with HOLOGRAPHIC UNIVERSE theory.!!..
AVIDYA -IGNORANCE
There may be some confusion that there are two types of objects, one is the mind object
which is inside the mind and the other is the world object which is outside. Frankly our
day to day experience also tells us that we are seeing the world object. Is this true?
Obviously not, the world object is the ‘grossified’ version of the mind object. It’s the
same thing, except the mind object is subtle and the world object is gross.
The mind object filled with Awareness/Consciousness is projected out by Maya Shakti
and the world object is created. Vedanta goes as far as to say there is nothing but
Awareness/Consciousness in the universe.
It must be understood that the full universe is not projected, only that part of the
universe is projected which we are observing. In terms of science Only the photons from
these observed objects become manifest, the photons from all other objects which are
not being observed will remain umanifest. It is difficult to grasp this concept by the
average intellect , but it is true that the remaining part of the universe which is not being
observed will be dormant and unmanifest. This is true for you as the Observer. However
another person could be looking at another part of the universe, for that person that
part of the universe will be manifest and the rest of the universe will remain unmanifest.
If you now turn around 180 deg, than the new objects and new vision area will become
manifest and the previous area of observation will become umanifest along with the rest
of the universe. Only when you observe the universe is there, but the universe is not
there if you are not observing. This is not an easy concept and it goes against our
understanding influenced by mind-body consciousness..
A question can be asked , if every person is creating their own time space framework
and the contents therein, how is it possible that everyone observes the same external
universe? The only logical answer is that the subtle universe is common and shared by
everyone. This common subtle universe is continuously updated to reflect all the
changes taking place and this is used to create the external universe. For example if
Person A cuts a branch of a tree, the subtle universe will be updated to reflect this
change because there is a subtle version of the tree. If person B wants to see this tree, he
will project the tree without that branch using the latest updated version of the subtle
universe. The subtle universe is like a software program which is being continuously
updated to reflect all the changes and this common software is used by every person in
the universe to project their own universe. The external subtle universe will be common,
but the internal subtle and causal body will be unique to each person.
If the real perception is being done in the subtle universe, where the Observer/Brahman
witnesses all the objects in the mind, then we have the question – why do we need the
Gross universe..
The answer to this is Avidya/ignorance. We (mind) forget our true nature of being the
awareful Observer of all the activities in the mind; instead we identify and become
attached to the vrittis in the mind, especially the vrittis that “I am this body”, “I am this
mind”. Having forgotten our true nature of being the awareful witness, whose attributes
are Sat Chit Ananda, we start looking for happiness elsewhere. To find this happiness we
have the desire to take up a physical body and we also want desirable objects in the
world so that we can interact with them and find this happiness, which forever seems to
elude us. It is with this desire we use the Maya Shakti provided to us to create this
universe. Obviously we will not find this true happiness in objects outside, but the quest
continues. This quest will come to an end only when we realize our true nature as Sat
Chit Ananda.

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