D.: What is Mahat?
M.: The reflected light from Absolute Consciousness. Just as a seed swells up before sprouting and then sprouts and grows, so also the Absolute Consciousness projects light, manifests as the ego and grows up as the body and the universe.
Mr. Chadwick: Is it the same as cosmic consciousness?
M.: Yes, it is so before the birth of the ego and the universe. It comprises them all. Just as all the pictures thrown on the screen are visible by the light projected from a spot, so also the body and the other objects are all visible in that reflected consciousness. It is, therefore, also cosmic consciousness.
Again, (in the microcosm) the body and all other objects are all contained in the brain. The light is projected on the brain. The impressions in the brain become manifest as the body and the worlds. Because the ego identifies itself with limitations, the body is considered separate and the world separate.
Lying down on your bed in a closed room with eyes closed you dream of London, the crowds there and you among them. A certain body is identified as yourself in the dream. London and the rest could not have entered into the room and into your brain; however, such wide space and duration of time were all perceptible to you. They must have been projected from the brain. Although the world is so big and the brain so small, is it not a matter of wonder that such a big creation is contained in such small compass as one’s brain? Though the screen is limited, still all the pictures of the cinema pass on it and are visibile there. You do not wonder how such a long procession of events could be manifest on such a small screen. Similarly with the objects and the brain.
D.: Then cosmic consciousness is not the same as realisation?
M.: Cosmic consciousness is behind the ego. It may be called , and the ego is . Īśvara may also be said to be the Absolute. There is no difference there.
The consciousness which pervades even is the Absolute one.