Question and answer 32

Could you explain a little more fully, in a way that's easier to take in, this business of Brahman pulsing in the Heart, as the Self, as 'I, I'?

Doesn't everyone agree that in states like deep sleep or a faint, there is no knowing of any kind, not of oneself and not of anything else, not even a little? And then, waking and saying 'I've woken', or coming round from a faint and saying 'I've come to my senses' — isn't that exactly a particular kind of knowing appearing, rising up out of that same featureless state? This particular knowing is what is called vijñāna. It never shines on its own; it always shines leaning on either the Self or the not-Self. Leaning on the Self, it is called true knowledge — knowledge shaped like the Self, knowledge of the undivided whole. Leaning on the not-Self, it is called ignorance. And the state where this vijñāna, leaning on the Self, shines in the very shape of the Self — that is what is called the pulsation of 'I'. This pulsation is never actually apart from that reality; it is exactly the sign that makes that reality directly evident. And yet the pulsation itself is not that reality's own permanent nature. Whatever root the pulsation leans on and shines from — that alone is the reality, also called prajñāna. This is exactly what the Vedānta means by 'prajñānam brahma', consciousness is Brahman. A verse makes it clearer still: the Self, the self-luminous light that is always present, witness to everything, shines always joined to what is called the sheath of vijñāna; hold this flawless Self as your mark, and, through the mind's own undivided turning toward it, taste it directly as 'I'.

Could this state of Brahman — that it pulsates in the Heart, in the form of the Self, as 'I, I' — be expounded a little more fully, in a way that becomes easier to grasp?

Is it not agreed by everyone that, in states such as deep sleep and swoon, there is no knowledge of any kind, neither of oneself nor of anything else, not even in the least? And is not the experience, afterward, on waking from sleep, 'I have woken', or, coming out of a faint, 'I have come to my senses' — is that not the appearance of a particular knowledge, arisen out of the featureless state just described? This particular knowledge is what is called vijñāna. This vijñāna never shines by itself alone; it shines only by depending on either the Self or the not-Self. When it depends on the Self it is called true knowledge, knowledge in the form of a mental modification shaped as the Self, knowledge of the undivided whole; when it depends on the not-Self it is called ignorance. The state in which this vijñāna, depending on the Self, shines in the form of the Self — that itself is called the pulsation of 'I'. This pulsation is never separate from that entity. This very pulsation is the fitting sign for making that entity directly evident; even so, this pulsation itself is not the entity's abiding nature. Whatever root this pulsation depends on and shines from — that alone is the entity, also called prajñāna. It is with reference to this that the Vedānta says 'prajñānam brahma' (consciousness is Brahman). Let this also be made clear from the purport of the scriptural verse: 'The Self, being the self-luminous light that is ever present and the witness of all, shines always joined to the so-called sheath of vijñāna; holding this flawless Self as the mark, experience it as "I" through the undivided modification.'