Not the body, not the mind, ever the witness – The wisdom of Ashtavakra

and the Oneness of Existence

According to Advaita Vedanta there is only One consciousness and all other things
like body, mind, world with its objects are just appearances in that consciousness
just like waves in an ocean. We are one with this supreme consciousness.

Sri Ramana Maharishi the great Advaitic master always advices seekers to keep
asking the Question Who am I? He says that when we negate the body,
negate the mind, negate the world and its objects then what exists is pure
awareness (existence, consciousness, bliss) which is our real nature.

Every Advaitic master and every Upanishad boldly and fearlessly claims that we are
not the body or the mind. One of the masterpieces in Advaita vedanta is the
Ashtavakra Gita. It is one of the most profound and powerful text in
bringing out the essence of Advaita. Its portrayed as a dialog between the sage
Ashtavakra and King Janaka where the sage Ashtavakra explains to king Janaka as
to how the knowledge of Brahman can be obtained and the king gets enlightened
during the discussions.

We do not really know if it’s actually is a conversation between the two or written in
that manner to make it more interesting .But one thing we can know for sure is
that everything which is told in the Ashtavakra Gita is told so clearly with absolute
profoundness and conviction that its more probable that it’s a proclamation of the
truth and experience of a great soul who has realized the Brahman.

Below are Slokas 4 and 5 from Chapter 15 of Ashtavakra gita

Meaning:

You are not your body, Your body is not you, You are not the doer. You are not the
experiencer.

You are pure awareness/consciousness, the witness of all things. You are without
expectation, Free. So, live happily.

OM SAI RAM!!OM SRI RAMAKRISHNA!!

Sloka 5,

Meaning:

Desire and aversion/anger are of the mind. The mind is never yours. You are free of
its turmoil.

You are awareness itself, Never changing. So, live happily.

These two slokas are such profound statements of the Advaitic truth. But we tend
to not understand it because of our conditioning and association with the body mind
complex.

So how do we logically analyze the statement that we are neither the body nor the
mind? Vedanta has numerous examples for this, some of which are covered below.

1.) Its only logical that the subject and object (ie. The seer and the seen) cannot be
the same. We are able to see our body. We are able to visualize the thoughts
created by our mind. Hence we obviously cannot be either the body or the mind.
We experience the body through the sensations we feel like heat, cold, pain,
hunger, thirst etc. Hence we are the experience of the body and not the body.

2.) Changing and Unchanging cannot be the same. Our body constantly changes
from birth till death. But our awareness of this change remains the same. Same can
be applied to mind. The emotions created by our mind constantly changes. Be it
pleasure or pain, happiness or sadness we experience a plethora of emotions. But
the awareness of the experience remains the same .Hence we cannot be either the
body or the mind and we are the observer of it.

3.) Awareness and unawareness cannot be the same. We are aware of our body
parts like hand, legs, etc. But our body parts are not aware of us. Similarly we are
aware of our thoughts and moods whereas the thoughts and moods are not aware
of us. Hence we cannot be either the body or mind. We are that consciousness that
illumines the body and mind.

OM SAI RAM!!OM SRI RAMAKRISHNA!!

In Vedanta the differentiation between the subject and object (Seer and seen) is
known as Drg Drishyam Vivekam. You can try out this practical example. Focus on
any object in front of you. You see the object with your eyes. So now your eyes
are the seer and the object becomes the seen. Now close your eyes and visualize
your eyes or any other body part or object in your mind. Now your mind becomes
the seer and the visualized body part or object becomes the seen. Keep your eyes
closed and observe that you are aware of the visualized thought/object. Now you
will realize that the awareness/consciousness is the seer and the mind with its
thought becomes the seen. This awareness is always the seer and is the witness of
waking, dreaming and deep sleep states.

This exercise proves that the body and mind are relative and can switch between
the seer or seen and they are not the absolute. Whereas your
awareness/consciousness is always the seer and will constantly remains the seer
(witness) irrespective of the changes happening in the body or mind. This
awareness is limitless, ever free, pure, immortal, unchanging and
unattached to the sensations of the body or the mind. And Vedanta
declares that this unchanging immortal witness consciousness is the real
you and the body and mind are just appearances which are manifested in
this consciousness/awareness. If this concept can be practised even a little we
will be able to disassociate our self from any problem and can handle it in a much
better manner.

The beauty of Vedanta is that it doesn’t prescribe any method or practise

to make us realize the Brahman. It boldly declares that we are already that
immortal, pure Brahman but we fail to recognize it because of Maya and
our mental conditioning and association with the body, mind and world.

Vedanta talks about the oneness of all existence. It says that everything is a
manifestation of one supreme consciousness. Advaita doesn’t end by saying that we
are not the body and mind. It says that we are the supreme consciousness which is
apart from the body, mind, world with its objects but the body, mind and world are
not apart from our consciousness and are all appearances in our consciousness.

We are only aware of the things that are perceived by our instruments of
knowledge like eyes and ears. Say we are sitting inside a room. We are aware of
only our immediate surroundings. This limitation is because of the limitations of our
eyes and ears. When we go out we are aware of a whole new set of things. But all
the things whether inside the room are outside are appearances in the same
consciousness and only our awareness level varies as per the limitations of our
instruments of knowledge. This is known as oneness of existence in Vedanta.

OM SAI RAM!!OM SRI RAMAKRISHNA!!

Everything like body, mind, thoughts, and emotions originates in
consciousness, lingers in consciousness and dissolves into consciousness.

This concept is iterated in Sloka 6 from Chapter 15 of Ashtavakra gita,

Meaning:

Realizing the self in all and all in the self, free from egoism and free from the sense
of “mine”, you be happy.

We are connected with all beings in the universe through the One consciousness. It
is this One consciousness which appears as all beings and things. The reason for
our inability to comprehend this oneness of existence/consciousness is because of
our identification with the mind which because of its concepts of time, space and
causation has created duality. Advaita says that when we dis-identify
ourselves with the mind all this many names and forms will vanish and
only the One will remain which is the supreme consciousness within you
which is one with the universe.

In an ocean the waves are nothing but water itself. Only name and form are being
attributed to it but it in no way affects the water. The waves are one with the
water. Similarly we are ocean of consciousness and all other things like body, mind,
and world with its objects are just appearances in that consciousness just likes
waves.

Concluding this with the beautiful statement Made by Sri Ramakrishna to his
disciplines as captured from the Gospel Of Sri Ramakrishna,

Sri Ramakrishna said “ The Vedantists say the Rama and Krishna are but
two waves in the ocean of Satchitananda. In reality these are not two.
There is only ONE.A man may call on God by any name, if he is sincere in
his prayer he will certainly reach Him. He will succeed if he has longing.”

OM SAI RAM!!OM SRI RAMAKRISHNA!!

Asato ma sadgamaya (Lead us from Untruth to Truth)
Tamaso ma jyotirgamaya (Lead us from Darkness  to Light)
Mrtyorma amrtam gamaya (Lead us from Death to Immortality)
Om shanti shanti shanti.

Samastha Loka Sukino Bavanthu (May Love and peace prevail)

Inspired by the Lord and Written by

Gadhadhar Gautam C

Credits and References:

 My interest and fascination in Advaita Vedanta is because of my visits to Sri

Ramakrishna Mutt, Chennai and my spiritual initiation by Swami Gautamananda
Maharaj ji. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Sai Satcharita are two books
which has deeply inspired me.

 I also owe a lot to Swami Sarvapriyananda whose Youtube lectures have been
deeply inspiring and empowering to understand the essence of Advaita. In fact
many of the examples I have given in this blog are from Swami
Sarvapriyanandas lectures whose links I have provided in the end. If you are
interested in this wonderful philosophy of Advaita do checkout Swami
Sarvapriyanandas enlightening videos which will be the perfect guide for any
laymen like us to progress in spirituality. 

 And most importantly Thanks to the all mighty God (Supreme Consciousness)
and Gurus who have been the guiding light for me in this journey.

  Links to some of Swami Sarvapriyanandas videos where we speaks about the

concepts mentioned in this blog is given below,

Ashtavakra Gita-The Enlightened Life - https://youtu.be/Pz0U2y_4OGQ

Divinity within - https://youtu.be/1ljrt8i2lcI

The oneness of existence - https://youtu.be/vviuXOFYQL4

Non Dual Meditation Part 1 - https://youtu.be/l3vddQwxA48

Non Dual Meditation Part 2 - https://youtu.be/dVKS8jhXN2s

The reference used for Ashtawakra Gita was the book Ashtavakra- Samhita by
Swami Nityaswarupananda

OM SAI RAM!!OM SRI RAMAKRISHNA!!