Gita, lesson 20: consciousness isn't in the world, the world is in it

Where is consciousness? The intuitive answer is "in the head," but the twentieth chapter in Swami Dayananda Saraswati's series flips the question: everything that exists for a person appears within consciousness, not the other way around. It is one of the most abstract chapters in the series, and it is worth taking in parts.

When is consciousness not?

Dayananda begins by challenging the listener to point to a moment when consciousness is not present. Even to speak of its absence, as in deep sleep or death, one needs to have it. It is self-evident and does not depend on another consciousness to be known. That is why he describes it as that in which things are, rather than as one more thing.

Space, time, and objects

The same reasoning applies to space. It seems to contain bodies, stars, and air, but it is perceived, that is, it is an object. So it is not consciousness that is in space; it is space that appears within it. The distance between consciousness and any object, from a flower to a star, is said to be zero. For the Vedāntic tradition, "being" and "consciousness" name the same reality, the Self.

The wave and the water

Dayananda turns to a classic analogy: the crest, the middle, and the trough of a wave are all water. In the same way, a thought, from beginning to end, is said to be consciousness. He also tells the story of a modern painting that looks like a jumble of shapes until someone says it is a table and points out the right angle. Vedānta, the Indian school of reflection on Being, is said to offer exactly that angle.

Dream and waking

Finally, the chapter compares dream and waking. In a dream, subject, object, and experience are a single consciousness. In waking life the division seems real, but, seen from the correct vantage point, it would be just as apparent.

The complete study is in the book A Essência do Bhagavad Gītā (The Essence of the Bhagavad Gita), by Swami Dayananda Saraswati.