What is subtle? One of the dictionary meanings of subtle is “difficult to perceive or understand.” If you go by this definition, then understanding and knowing the Subtle Universe will not be easy. This may be true. But the fact is that there is a fully functioning Subtle Universe. In fact, that is the only real universe. Everything happens first in the Subtle Universe and later in the Gross Universe. This may be strange and counterintuitive to most people. We are used to the Gross Universe. We live in the Gross Universe and interact and deal with all the gross objects “out there.” That is the only universe we know. Few know or are even aware of the Subtle Universe. The focus of this essay is to understand the Subtle Universe.

Vedanta teaches us that there are three universes. The Seed Universe is the innermost universe, and then is the Subtle Universe. The Gross Universe which we see “out there” is the outermost universe. This may be new to many people, so let us briefly discuss the Seed and Gross Universes and then focus on the Subtle Universe.

1. Seed Universe
2. Subtle Universe
3. Gross Universe

Seed Universe

Yes, there is a Seed Universe. The Seed Universe is made up of individual Seed Bodies. Every living being must have a Seed Body. A Seed Body is a prerequisite for any living being. Nothing can exist without a Seed Body. We all know that a plant or a tree comes from a seed. A seed is a must for plants or trees. A rose plant from a rose seed, a mango tree with all its fruit from a mango seed. In the same way, every living and non-living being has a Seed Body. Everything germinates from a Seed Body. Even this universe has a Seed Body, which includes all the individual Seed Bodies.

Gross Universe

The Gross Universe is where we live. We know the Gross Universe is full of all living beings and objects. We interact with these gross objects daily. We think we know the Gross Universe well, but we make so many obvious errors in understanding it. One of the biggest errors is that we think the universe is made up of “live” or “now” objects—but the Gross Universe is made up of only dated or “memory” objects. They are recorded objects. You will never find a “live” or “now” object in the Gross Universe. We have discussed this topic in so many different essays in my book, Science Meets Vedanta.

If you examine all the objects in the physical universe, you will reach the conclusion that only memory objects exist in the Gross Universe. How do you understand this? The sun you see is not a “live” sun; it is a “now minus eight minutes” version of the sun. Why? We know light takes eight minutes to reach us from the sun, so the sun we see in the sky is a “now minus eight minutes” sun. It is not a “now” version of the sun. It is a dated version of the sun.

The sun we see is not a “live” or “now” sun; it is basically a memory object which is a “now minus eight minutes” version. In the same way, the moon we see at night is a “now minus three seconds” version of the moon, because light takes three seconds to reach us from the moon. This logic applies to every object in the physical world. It is just impossible for anyone to know or interact with a “live” or “now” object in this physical world. We interact only with memory objects. This applies not just to objects but also to people, animals, and all living beings. For every object in the world, light takes a finite amount of time (however small it maybe)  to reach us , and therefore they are only memory objects; they can never be “live” or “now” objects. Therefore, anything and everything in this physical universe is made up of only memory objects. This does indicate that all the action we see in the Gross Universe is dated and has already happened earlier. The “live” action has happened elsewhere, and we see a recorded version in the Gross Universe.

What an amazing conclusion; it is so logical, so simple and straightforward to understand. So, if all objects are memory or dated objects that exist in the Gross Universe, the question is that where then do the “live” or “now” objects exist? This is where the Subtle Universe comes into play.

Subtle Universe

We have just seen that the Gross Universe is made up of recorded or memory objects alone. So the question is, where can we find the “live” or “now” objects? It is definitely not in the Gross Universe; then where? This is a good question to ponder over. The only possible answer is: our mind. Is this even possible? Simple logic and reasoning support this fact. We have just seen that the sun we see is a “now minus eight minutes” version of the sun. This is because light takes eight minutes to reach us, and thus we see a dated version of the sun. The question is, where is the “now minus zero seconds” version of the sun? The location of the “now’ version of the sun will be where light will take zero seconds to reach us. Think about it—the only place where light will take zero seconds to reach us is the observer within each one of us. This means the “now” version of the sun is within the observer. Quite obviously, the observer is within us and is part of the mind. Therefore, the “now” version of the sun is within us while the “now minus eight minutes” version is “out there.” This simple logic and reasoning will apply to all objects, near and far away. This does show that all the “now” version of objects are only within the mind. There is a full universe of “now” objects within each one of us. This universe of “now’ objects is the Subtle Universe. This Subtle Universe functions in the mind alone. Isn’t this an amazing conclusion!

Makeup of “Now” Objects: We have just concluded that the Subtle Universe of the “now” version of objects functions in the mind. Let us now go a step deeper to understand the makeup of “now” objects in the Subtle Universe. If you are a student of Vedanta, you will learn that all the subtle objects which operate within the mind are made up of vrittis or waveforms. The mind is full of vrittis or waveforms representing all the different objects.

Surprisingly, quantum physics supports this idea of waveforms of objects. If you understand the basics of quantum physics, you will know about the wave/particle duality of objects. Quantum physics teaches that all objects (small or big) have a wave property and a particle property. This is a proven fact. See the similarity between the wave/particle duality of quantum physics and gross objects and subtle objects (made up of waves) as taught by Vedanta. In my book, Science Meets Vedanta, I have discussed this topic extensively and shown that quantum waves and vrittis or waveforms in the mind are the same. It is amazing that both quantum physics and Vedanta support this idea that every object has a wave property and a particle property. However, what quantum physics can learn is that quantum waves do not function in the Gross Universe; they operate within the mind and they represent the “now” version of all objects. These waveforms are the building blocks of the Subtle Universe.

Every object in the universe has its own waveform. These object waveforms combine to create one big waveform for the universe. We can call this the cosmic waveform. This cosmic waveform includes everything which is contained in the universe. Nothing is left out, right from the smallest atom to the largest galaxies. The size and complexity of this massive cosmic waveform is simply breathtaking.

Structure of the Subtle Universe: The Subtle Universe has two components—Cosmic Mind and Individual Mind. The cosmic mind is the mothership, and all the individual minds are connected to the cosmic mind.

1. The cosmic waveform represents all the objects in the universe and is contained in the cosmic mind. A lot is happening in the cosmic mind. The cosmic waveform is not static; it is continuously updated. As time passes, each object’s waveform changes, and this change updates the cosmic waveform. With so many different objects in the universe, what a gigantic task is undertaken by the cosmic mind! As time passes, each object changes and this means that the cosmic waveform is continuously updated.

2. The cosmic mind is a busy place, and it maintains the most updated database of all the happenings in the universe. Then, we have individual minds. Each living being has a mind and it is connected to the cosmic mind. Each individual mind is also full of activity. Talking, walking, eating, playing, traveling, moving objects from here to there, and many similar activities are done by the individual mind. When any activity is done, the individual mind must send all the changes to the cosmic mind. In this way, the cosmic waveform is kept up-to-date. These updates are done instantaneously. This means that the information in the cosmic mind is always current and latest. Every living being is doing actions, and each mind is updating the database in the cosmic mind. It is just unimaginable how the cosmic mind processes and handles all these changes and updates. It is simply mind-boggling. One can only imagine the processing power which is inherent in the cosmic mind. It must be infinite.

3. The cosmic mind has the latest and most updated information about all the “now” objects. For the individual minds to perceive the universe through the five senses, it downloads a subset of the cosmic waveform. The subset contains information about its surroundings—just like Google Maps, where you open the map and see information about your location alone. The individual mind functions in a similar manner; it downloads information surrounding its location.

If you are within your house, the subset waveform will have information on all the happenings in the house. If you are playing golf, the subset waveform will contain all the information surrounding the golf course. If you are flying in a plane and looking out of the window, that subset information is downloaded to the mind. If you are swimming underwater, all the information for that view is sent to the individual mind. This happens to every individual mind. There is a continuous download of information from the cosmic mind to the individual minds.

Each individual mind has all the information about its location, including visual, sound, touch, taste, and smell. The information in the mind is made up of waveforms. The problem is that we are not designed to perceive the waveforms in the mind. We are only aware of what happens in the gross world. To perceive the universe, the mind projects the subset content as the gross objects “out there.” Just like a projector in a cinema hall projects the movie on a screen, in the same way, the mind projector projects the gross universe “out there.” That is the only way to perceive the universe. That is the only way we are aware of the universe. This may seem strange and counterintuitive to most people. Science does not teach that we project the universe, but Vedanta does. Projection of the universe by the mind is the only truth. For more details on this subject, I would request you to read Chapter 18 of my book, Science Meets Vedanta. In this chapter, called “Projection—The Only Truth,” I have given a detailed analysis of why projection is the only truth and a step-by-step process of how the projection takes place. It is worth a read to be fully convinced on this subject.

4. We have just seen that all actions that we undertake are uploaded to the cosmic mind. Also, we have seen that to perceive the universe, we download the content from the cosmic mind. Let me give you a couple of examples to explain the upload and download process.

—Let us say you are having a conversation with your friend. This activity looks so routine and straightforward. Actually, it is not; it is much more complicated. Let us see how it works. Your friend is talking. His talking originates in his mind. We know the mind is made up of waveforms. The talking waveform from the mind is uploaded to the cosmic mind. The cosmic waveform is updated to include this talk. For you to listen to this conversation, your mind will download these sound waveforms along with all the other object waveforms about your location. Once you download these waveforms, the mind projects the content. This way you become aware of what your friend is saying. As a reply in the conversation, your mind will prepare an answer. The sound waveform of this answer is uploaded to the cosmic mind, and the cosmic waveform is updated. You and your friend will download this subset of your answer. Your friend’s mind will project this, so that he is aware of what you have said. Your mind will also project this information, so that you can also hear what you have said. Wow, this process is complicated. Yes, it is complicated, and this is the only way all the action and perception happens in the Subtle Universe.

—Let us take another example. You and your friend are walking, and your friend plucks a flower. The plucking of the flower happens first in the Subtle Universe. As mentioned earlier, the Gross Universe contains only dated information, actions which have already happened. Therefore, the plucking of the flower happens first in the Subtle Universe. Your friend’s mind undertakes this action by updating the waveform. One can only guess that waveforms are updated by change in coding. The waveform without the flower is uploaded to the cosmic mind. The cosmic waveform is then without that flower. Your mind then downloads the updated subset of the cosmic waveform without the flower. Your mind projects this information, and you perceive the action of the flower being removed from the plant. That is how the action and perception of activity takes place.

Everything happens in the Subtle Universe first, and then the actions which have already happened in the Subtle Universe are projected “out there” as the Gross Universe. The Subtle Universe is the universe of “now” objects where all the action happens first; the Gross Universe is a display of dated, memory objects. The Gross Universe shows all the action which has already happened in the Subtle Universe. This is the Only Truth.

How do we talk or speak? What is the science behind speech? If you google this, you will find many similar answers. Here is a sample found online:
Speech starts in the stomach with the diaphragm. This is a large muscle that helps push air from the lungs into the voice box. The voice box or larynx has vocal cords that vibrate to produce your voice. Then, the lips, tongue, and teeth form the sounds to make speech.

The process mentioned above seems like the end process of actual speech. It looks incomplete. Science is leaving out many unanswered questions. It is leaving out the beginning part of the speech process.

1. When we were born, none of us knew any words or any language. Slowly but surely, we picked up our native and other languages. The question is how we learned these languages. What is the power which allowed us to learn these words and languages?

2. To talk or speak there must be words. Without words there can be no talk. So, words are an integral and important component of any speech. The question is where and how these words are stored. We can speak only the words we know and have learned.

3. Okay, we make a database of words within us. The next question is how we choose the words from this database. Who chooses these words? Who decides what we are going to say?

4. Once the decision is made on what to say, the next question is how these words are sent across to the vocal cords in the physical body so that the final speech is made.

Wow! So many interesting and unanswered questions. The process does not seem simple; it looks elaborate and complicated. Unfortunately, scientists have no answers to most of the above questions. So, what is the solution? We must look elsewhere to find the answer. The only right place is the teaching of Vedanta. To unpack these questions, we will divide our discussion into the following topics:

• Understanding the Power of Knowing
• How Do We Learn?
• Role of Mind in Speech
• Interface Between Mind and Vocal Cords
  Understanding the Power of Knowing
  
  We have discussed Power of Knowing in many different essays. It is one of the key powers within Awareness. We have mentioned in these essays that there is a Bulb of Awareness within each living being. It is our innermost core. This Bulb of Awareness radiates Awareness, and it has the following three amazing powers:
  
• Power of Knower (Subject)
• Power of Known (Object)
• Power of Knowing (Knowledge and Intelligence)
  
  This Bulb of Awareness is the source of everything in the universe. It is the substratum of all objects. The power of Knower allows us to be the Observer of the universe. Power of Known allows Awareness to take the shape of all objects in the universe. Power of Knowing is intelligence. Let us discuss this in a little more detail.
  
  Power of Knowing: Awareness is the repository of all possible knowledge and intelligence. It is as if there is a complete digital library within Awareness. No possible knowledge or intelligence is missing. Power of Knowing is the power which allows us to tap into the unlimited knowledge and intelligence which is present within Awareness.
  
  1. If you are aware of 2+2=4, it is because this knowledge is within Awareness. If you know calculus, it is because all the knowledge of calculus is within Awareness. If you know Sanskrit, it is because this knowledge is resident within Awareness. If you know Chinese, it is because that knowledge is within Awareness. If you know music, it is because that knowledge is within Awareness. Think of any possible knowledge, that knowledge is present within Awareness. Nothing is missing.
  
  2. All the intelligence is also present within Awareness. All the logic, making inferences, creative thinking, making cross-connections within different knowledge streams, remembering knowledge—all this and much more is present within Awareness. Also present are all the different powers—the power to understand, power to think, power to learn, power to perceive, power to hear, and so many other powers.
  
  Awareness is the storage of all possible knowledge and also all possible intelligence. All this knowledge and intelligence is present right within us. If you think about it, our knowledge is very limited, a small iota of all possible knowledge. All the remaining knowledge is present within Awareness, but it is covered by our individual ignorance. If the right effort is made, Power of Knowing helps in removing this ignorance and exposes the required knowledge. All the unlimited knowledge is present within Awareness. Breathtaking!
  
  How Do We Learn?
  When a baby is born, it has no knowledge; it is only covered with ignorance. Knowledge-wise, it is a blank slate. So how does it gain knowledge? We have all been through this process. With repeated instructions and practice, the baby recognizes simple objects and words, and gains knowledge. This new knowledge sticks and the Power of Knowing removes ignorance of these topics. The mind therefore gains intelligence and knowledge of these topics. As children grow up and go to school, with repeated learning and practice, more ignorance is removed and more knowledge is gained. It is surprising how rapidly this knowledge grows. It is almost exponential in the early stages. This is because Power of Knowing exposes this knowledge within the mind. For example, suppose you start to learn English and are exposed to the basics of the language. Initially you learn different words and sentences. Thereafter, your mind also self-learns many words and sentences just by picking up from the English spoken around you—listening to TV and movies, people talking around you, and by reading, etc. Very little effort is made to get additional knowledge. It comes almost automatically. This applies to all aspects of our learning. A well-tuned learning mind makes full use of the connections with Power of Knowing. It does seem that the mind is a powerful self-learning tool; it is constantly learning and picking up intelligence with Power of Knowing. That is the strength and beauty of the mind—it is self-learning. The more knowledge you gain, the stronger your mind will become. This also means that the mind has a much bigger database of knowledge.
  
  It is not wrong to say that the mind is the ultimate Artificial Intelligence (AI) device, continuously learning and upgrading itself in the presence of Power of Knowing. In spite of this, a great deal of knowledge remains covered by Ignorance. Only that knowledge which has been revealed is available to the mind; the rest remains hidden. The knowledge of calculus will not reveal itself automatically. It must be learned first; only then will the knowledge of calculus be available. This applies to all knowledge.
  
  Individual Mind Profile: It is a known fact that each person has a different knowledge–ignorance profile. Some people are more intelligent than others. Some people are intelligent in a certain skill set, while others are more talented in other skills. According to Vedanta, the soul is the keeper of this knowledge–ignorance profile—keeping a profile of our intelligence. This knowledge profile is not gained in this life but is a cumulative profile of all previous lives. If you are good at Math, it is because you have this skill set in your soul. This skill set was acquired over all your previous past lives. If you are good at languages, it is because you have the skill for languages from your previous lives.
  
  These skill set within your soul will help you in this lifetime. For example, if you have the skill for languages, you will learn a language much faster than others who do not have the skill for languages. You will have a bigger database of words.
  
  Role of Mind in Speech
  A good comparison is to understand the role played by Siri in iPhones and Alexa on Amazon. These types of AI devices are now quite common, and we use them regularly in our daily lives. Ask a question and these AI assistants will reply and talk back to you. They seem quite intelligent. Many different types of robots also fall into this category. Amazing work is being done in this area. There is a database of information. These devices are programmed to make different connections within the database. When a question is asked, these devices use these connections and respond appropriately. They self-learn and become intelligent. It must be understood that the intelligence of these devices is limited by the size of the database, the quality of the database, and how well they have been programmed.
  
  In that regard, the human mind is just like any AI device. Its behavior is similar. We discussed earlier that the mind is self-learning and continuously updating its knowledge database. One of the functions of the mind database is to support speech and speaking. Depending on the topic, question, or response to a conversation, the mind will investigate the database and create appropriate words and sentences. As we mentioned earlier, each living being has their own exclusive mind profile, their own database of words, their own style of talking. All these factors are considered when the mind creates sentences for communication. So, each mind is different and will respond differently.
  
  The important takeaway from this discussion is that the highly intelligent mind is the starting point of any communication. All talking and speech begins with the mind. Formation of words and sentences is all done in the mind. What you are going to say is all decided in the mind. This may sound strange, but yes, the intelligent mind is the source of all communication. We are so used to thinking that the “I” is the source of all the talking, but it is the mind which does all the work.
  
  Mind and Ego: Does that mean we are at the mercy of the mind, that we are captives of the mind? Whatever the mind decides, is it final? That seems quite dangerous. Luckily, this is not the case. We have an ego (the feeling of “I-ness”) which can and should control and manage the mind.
  
  What really happens is that when the mind finalizes the words and sentences for speaking, it presents it to the ego for consideration. The ego will either like (raga) or dislike (dvesha) what is being presented. If the ego likes it, it will allow the speech to move forward. If it dislikes it, it can ask the mind to modify it. I am sure we all experience this. Sometimes we are about to make some stupid statement, but we decide not to move forward with it and we make modifications. This happens when the ego disapproves, and then the mind makes the required changes. From this, it does seem that the ego is the real boss. In fact, the presence of the ego is the main difference between a robot and human beings. Robots have no ego but the human being has an ego.
  
  However, the ego must be vigilant and keep a close watch on the output from the mind. If the ego becomes lazy, the mind can take advantage, and it can create havoc.
  
  Interface Between Mind and Vocal Cords
  We have just seen that the starting point of any speech is the mind. The mind prepares the words and sentences which are finally spoken. No one knows through what format these words are prepared; I guess it is subtle. These words/sentences are residing in the mind, and they must finally reach the vocal cords. So, how do these words reach the vocal cords? This can be broken into two steps:
  
  Step 1—Mind to Brain: We know the brain is the controller and manager of everything which happens in the physical body. Therefore, the mind must send the signal containing the words to the brain.
  
  The brain has different departments. Each department specializes in different activities. Some specialize in vision or sound or coordinating with different organs and parts of the body. So how does the brain receive its instructions from the mind? The connection between the mind and brain is through the billions of neurons available within the brain. These neurons are the information messengers between the mind and brain. When instructions or activity happen in the mind, the neurons pass this information to the relevant parts of the brain. This is how information is shared between the mind and brain—through neurons.
  
  The auditory cortex and the temporal lobe are the parts of the brain that process sound. The speech signal is sent to the auditory cortex by these neurons from the mind. How this really happens, only Nature knows. We have no clue, but it is happening.
  
  Step 2—Brain to Vocal Cords: A different class of neurons then coordinates and organizes the different parts of the brain so that the instructions from the mind can be completed. For implementation, the brain sends signals to the sound-related organs and body parts through the complex nervous system. Based on these instructions, the different sound-related organs are activated to reproduce the required sound. All this is simply amazing. It is like operating a complex machine. We think we are moving our tongue to produce sounds, but we are doing nothing. The instructions from the brain are completing the job. The ego takes the credit, but really it does not contribute much.
  
  What a complex procedure for speech to happen. These steps are repeated again and again whenever we speak. Isn’t this simply amazing? We must bow to our innermost core, which allows this complex process from the mind to the vocal cords to work so seamlessly. We think the ‘I’ within us is doing the talking, but it does not, it only takes the credit. Whenever we speak, we must be grateful to the awesome powers of Awareness. The three powers of Awareness are the ultimate source of everything and anything in this universe. Nothing can happen without these three powers.

I am sure most of us think about these questions. They are so fundamental to everything we see around us, including our own existence. So, who is Ishvara (God)? It is not an easy question to answer. Ask people and you will get a variety of answers and even divergent viewpoints. Ask a Christian, they will say Jesus Christ is their God. Ask a Muslim, they will say Allah is their God. Ask a Hindu, you will get a list of different Ishvaras.

People have so many different concepts, ideas, and viewpoints about Ishvara. Who is correct? One thing is certain—there is a lack of proper understanding and knowledge about this topic. When there is a lack of knowledge, myths and misinformation take root among people. This lack of understanding makes Ishvara very remote and distant. It seems Ishvara is beyond our grasp. So, what is the solution? The only solution is proper and correct knowledge of Ishvara. One of the major benefits of this knowledge is that it takes you closer to Ishvara. The more you learn about Ishvara, the closer you can get to Ishvara—this fact cannot be denied. The more you demystify Ishvara, the nearer you get to Ishvara. The question is, how do you demystify? Proper knowledge is the only solution. Yes, knowledge is a MUST, a prerequisite, to understand Ishvara. Without proper knowledge, progress can be limited. It is a fact; knowledge is not the ultimate step. Once the correct knowledge is acquired and understood, then devotion is a necessary step to reach the destination. So, it seems like a two-step process: acquire the correct knowledge first, and then reach the destination with devotion. The focus of this essay is the first step of acquiring the correct knowledge about Ishvara. We will see in this essay that Ishvara is hiding in plain sight. It is everywhere.

The next question–if you ask people where Ishvara is, many people will point to the sky, thinking heaven is somewhere in the sky and that Ishvara resides in heaven. Some people may consider that Ishvara is found only in temples. People who are exposed to the scriptures will agree that the divinity of Ishvara will be found within each one of us, but with limited understanding. In this essay, we will also discuss where is the residence of Ishvara.

Who Is Ishvara?
People who have been reading my essays may be able to answer this question. Ishvara is Awareness. Yes, Ishvara is Awareness. It is that simple. Awareness seems such an ordinary word, but the powers within Awareness are simply extraordinary. Awareness is the most powerful force in the universe; it is the substratum of anything and everything in the universe. Everything exists because of Awareness. Nothing can exist without Awareness.

1. How do we witness everything in the universe through our five senses? It is because of Awareness.
2. What is the makeup of all the objects in the universe—right from atoms to galaxies and everything in between? It is Awareness alone, nothing but Awareness.
3. How do you see, taste, smell, listen to all objects? It is because of Awareness.
4. How do you learn and understand everything about this complex universe? It is because of the knowledge and intelligence which is within Awareness.

So, it seems everything in the universe happens because of Awareness. Are you aware of reading this essay? Are you aware of your surroundings? The answer must be Yes. That is the Awareness we are talking about. It is that simple. If you think about it, we have experiences on a continuous basis. We are aware of all our experiences. You cannot say I had an experience, and I am not aware of it. Awareness is the basic ingredient of all experiences. The content of all experiences is Awareness, for only then can you be aware of the experience. We have had experiences on a continuous basis ever since we were born. So, it seems Awareness is with us right from our birth. We therefore take Awareness for granted and do not think about it very much. This Awareness is Ishvara. To support this idea, let us discuss the powers which are present within Ishvara. If you can understand and appreciate these powers, you will conclude that Awareness must be Ishvara.

Powers of Awareness
We have discussed the powers of Awareness in so many different essays and in my book, Science Meets Vedanta. We will briefly repeat them here to show how these powers of Awareness must be the powers of Ishvara. Awareness is made of Subject, Object, and Intelligence, and it has three different powers—Knower, Known, and Knowing.

• Awareness = Subject + Object + Intelligence
• Power of Awareness = Power of Knower + Power of Known + Power of Knowing

It must be understood that Subject, Object, Intelligence, and the three powers are not something outside in the world—they are within Awareness and make up Awareness. If any one of them is missing, Awareness will not work and will be incomplete.

• If there is an object to be observed but there is no subject, there will be no Awareness, as there is no one to see the object.
• If there is a subject but no object to see, there will be no Awareness, as the subject has no object to observe.
• If there is an object but the subject has no way of knowing what this object is, no Awareness will take place. This knowing must have intelligence.

Wherever there is Awareness, there must be present Subject, Object, and Intelligence with all the three powers. Right now, you are aware that you are reading this essay. In this Awareness, there is a Reader (Subject) who is reading this essay. The words in the essay are the object within Awareness. There is intelligence which decodes the words so that the reader can comprehend them. Every experience must have these three powers. These powers are the gift from Ishvara. Let us discuss these three powers of Awareness in some more detail.

Power of Knower: There must be a witness within us that witnesses these experiences. Vedanta uses the term Sakshi or witness. This witness is the Subject. Power of the Knower manipulates Awareness so that Awareness plays the role of a Subject. This power gives the Subject the ability to play many different roles. Here are some examples of how the Subject undertakes this task:

• When it is the Knower of seeing, the Subject is a seer.
• When it is the Knower of hearing, the Subject is a hearer.
• When it is the Knower of reading, the Subject is a reader.
• When it is the Knower of tasting, the Subject is a taster.

There is one Subject within us, who is playing all the different roles of seer, hearer, reader, taster, smeller, feeler, and many more such roles. This Subject is indeed a very dynamic entity; at the drop of a hat it keeps changing its role all through the day. One moment it is a seer of a tree; the next moment it could be a listener of music, then back to the seer of a car ahead, then the smeller of perfume of a passerby. With every change of experience, the Subject plays a different role. The profile of the Subject keeps changing thus rapidly all through the day. It is simply amazing. All this is possible because of the Power of Awareness, which is nothing but Ishvara.

Power of Known: A simple question—how do you know an object exists? The obvious answer is that you are aware of the object. Since you are aware, you are sure the object exists. If awareness is not present, then the object will not exist; you will not know the object. Awareness is the basic ingredient of any object. This Awareness must fill up the object, take the exact shape of the object, so that you can be aware of the object. Power of the Known manipulates Awareness so that Awareness can take the shape of the object. A good metaphor to understand this is that it is like a lump of Play-Doh. You can manipulate Play-Doh into any shape. You can make a car, a tree, a house. In the same way, Power of the Known can manipulate Awareness into filling up any object with Awareness. How Power of the Known manipulates Awareness into becoming all the different objects in the universe is a million-dollar question—only Ishvara knows.

• If you are aware of the car outside your window, it is because Power of the Known manipulates Awareness into taking the shape of the car.
• If you are aware of the music from your device, it is because Power of the Known fills up the music with Awareness.
• If you are aware of the taste of chocolate, it is because the taste form of chocolate is superimposed on Awareness by Power of the Known.

Awareness is the ingredient, the substratum of all objects “out there.” Object forms vary, but the content of all objects is Awareness. Since Awareness is Ishvara, all the objects in the universe are made up of Ishvara. Simply amazing. This idea is worth thinking about and contemplating. This logic should help you to look at these objects “out there” with a new and different perspective.

Power of Knowing: Awareness is the repository of all possible knowledge and intelligence. It is like a digital library within Awareness. No possible knowledge or intelligence is missing.

1. If you are aware of 2+2=4, it is because this knowledge is within Awareness. If you know calculus, it is because all the knowledge of calculus is within Awareness. If you know Sanskrit, it is because this knowledge is resident within Awareness. Everything you have learned since you were born, that knowledge is present within Awareness. Initially, the knowledge is covered by ignorance. You are unaware of that knowledge. When you remove ignorance of a topic, Power of Knowing exposes that knowledge from within Awareness. Once that is done, you learn, you understand, you become aware, and you know that knowledge. If you think about it, our knowledge is very limited, a small iota of all possible knowledge. All the remaining knowledge is present within Awareness, but it is covered by our individual ignorance. If the right effort is made, Power of Knowing helps in removing this ignorance and exposes the required knowledge. All the unlimited knowledge is present within Awareness. Breathtaking!

2. All the intelligence is also present within Awareness. All the logic, making inferences, creative thinking, making cross connections within different knowledge streams, remembering knowledge—all this and much more is present within Awareness. Unfortunately, the human mind is exposed to only a small part of this Intelligence.

Awareness is the storage of all possible knowledge and also all possible intelligence. Therefore, it is only correct to conclude that Ishvara must be Awareness.

I am sure this discussion must have convinced you that Ishvara is Awareness. All the knowledge, all the intelligence, all the objects of the universe and our ability to witness them are part of Awareness. The powers within Awareness are nothing short of breathtaking and amazing. If you are aware at this moment, then that Awareness is Ishvara. Wherever there is Awareness, Ishvara is present there. Since Awareness is everywhere, it does seem that Ishvara is not making any attempt to hide itself or make itself very complicated. Where there is Awareness, Ishvara is already present there. You can say that Ishvara is hiding in plain sight, but we are ignoring this fact. My suggestion is to understand Awareness. Once you can do that, you will understand Ishvara and you will understand this universe. You will also get closer to Ishvara.

Where Is Ishvara?
We have just seen that wherever there is Awareness, that Awareness is Ishvara. All the objects in the universe are made up of Awareness. That means Ishvara is everywhere. Go to any corner of the universe—if you are aware of the surroundings, then Ishvara is present there. So, it is correct to conclude that everything “out there” is only Ishvara and Ishvara is everywhere. This is the only correct conclusion. So, the next question to answer is—what is the source of this Awareness? Where does this Awareness come from? If you know the source of Awareness, then you will know the residential address of Ishvara.

We have discussed in many different essays that our innermost core is a Bulb of Awareness. This Bulb of Awareness is like a factory generating and radiating Awareness. This Bulb is the source of the Awareness “out there.” All the Awareness in the universe is due to this Bulb of Awareness. For students of Vedanta, it is worth mentioning that Bulb of Awareness and SatChitAnanda are synonymous. If the Bulb of Awareness is present in our innermost core, that would mean that Ishvara is present in our innermost core.

What does innermost core really mean? Innermost core indicates that it is something which is within us. However, if we look inside, we only find the inner parts of our body—all the organs, muscles, blood, and so many other things. The scriptures teach us that divinity does reside within each one of us. It is not easy to understand how divinity can reside within us, when we have only internal organs within us. Is there something else within us of which we have no clarity or understanding? It does seem that our innermost core must be something much deeper than our inner organs. Something beyond our inner organs. How do we find this place and how do we understand it? The only way is to investigate the starting point of space. If we do that, we will find that the innermost core is beyond space. The Bulb of Awareness or Ishvara is sitting outside space.

Understanding the Starting Point of Space: Science has got it completely wrong about the starting point of space. Yes, the universe may have started with the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago. However, the Big Bang is no longer the starting point of space—it is now the outer edge. We know space is expanding; therefore, the outer edge must also be moving further away from us. Logically, space must start from a nonmoving point. The outer edge is expanding and moving; therefore, the Big Bang point cannot be the starting point. We must look elsewhere.

The best way is to look at space in terms of time, not distance. How much time does light take to reach us from different objects? Let us study the objects “out there” in terms of time. We see a faraway star, say, five million light-years away; it takes light from that star five million years to reach us. Now we see the sun; light from the sun takes eight minutes to reach us. We look at the moon; light takes three seconds to reach us. We look at the plane flying in the sky at 30,000 feet; light takes about 300 milliseconds to reach us. As the distance of the object being viewed is reduced, the time taken for light to reach us is much less.

Now, we look at the tree outside the window; the time taken for light to reach us is 10 microseconds (10-6). Looking at the computer screen one foot away and reading this essay, light takes about one nanosecond (10-9) to reach us. As the distance reduces, the time taken for the light to reach us reduces. If you extrapolate this backward, the only logical location for light to take zero seconds to reach us is the Subject (Sakshi), who is watching all these objects. This subject is the starting point of space. This starting point is the t=0 for space. This Subject is the nonmoving point of space.

If you or anyone else looks around at the objects in the universe and uses the reasoning given above, each one will reach the same conclusion: that the starting point of space is the Subject within each one of us. This is simply amazing that space starts from the Subject within us. That means that everything which is behind the Subject is outside space. The physical body and all the objects “out there” are within space, but everything behind the subject or observer is outside space. If you travel from Mumbai to New York, the starting point for space will travel with you. The Subject within you will always be the staring point of space, irrespective of your location.

What Is Behind the Subject, Which Is Outside Space? We only know everything which happens in space. Knowing what happens outside space is not an easy task. We know that the Subject is just outside space because we have shown that the Subject is the starting point of space. As we have discussed, Subject is part of Awareness, therefore the source of Awareness is within us, but outside space. The Ishvara which is present within us is outside space. This is a new dimension to understand that both space and outside space are within us. If you go deeper into understanding what is outside space, you will find it is a busy and happening place. I would request you to read my essay “What Is There within Us,” where we have discussed this topic in detail. As mentioned in this essay, the following levels are within us, but outside space. Level 1 is our innermost core and Level 4 the outermost. It may be surprising to know that the mind is not in space, but outside space.

Level 1: SatChitAnanda/Ishvara
Level 2: Soul/Seed Body
Level 3: Individual Mind/Cosmic Mind
Level 4: Cosmic Waveforms

The only correct conclusion of this essay is that Ishvara is Awareness and Ishvara is within us, but outside space. To reach Ishvara, our focus should be understanding Awareness.

If you follow the teachings of Vedanta, you must have heard the sentence “The world (jagat) is mithya.” In Vedanta, this is a popular way to describe the world. Here, “mithya” is a Sanskrit word which means unreal, false, or that which is not real. Some even take the interpretation a step further by saying it means that the world is an illusion. According to this reasoning, if something is unreal it must be an illusion.

So, is the world mithya? We see the world “out there”; we interact daily with the world and all the objects therein; everything seems real “out there.” We can see these objects, we can touch them, dissect them, and investigate them. There is an unlimited number of objects in the world, right from small atoms to massive galaxies. So, how can the world be unreal or an illusion? Are all these objects unreal? Are all these objects an illusion? On what basis does Vedanta teach us that the world is mithya?

The focus of this essay is to discuss and investigate this fact. What does mithya really mean? If these objects are mithya, then what are all these unlimited objects “out there”? What exactly are these objects and of what are these objects made? To understand this, we will divide our discussion into the follow three sections:

1. What Is Real and UnReal?
2. Understanding Objects
3. Makeup of Objects

What Is Real and UnReal?

The classic statement taught by Adi Shankaracharya to understand Real and UnReal is—“Brahma Satyam Jagat Mithya.” Brahma is Real; the World is UnReal. This is a very popular and oft-quoted statement. In this statement, let us try and understand what Satyam or Sat means. Once we properly understand what Sat means, it will become easier to know what is mithya.

What Is Satyam or Sat: Sat means Real. If you look up any dictionary, you will get a wide variety of meanings for “real.” These dictionary meanings are no good for understanding Sat. According to Vedanta, for anything to be Sat, it must exist and be present in all the three tenses—past, present, and future. If you investigate Nature, you will not find anything which is Sat.

• This universe was born 13.7 billion years ago, and therefore it did not exist before that, so it cannot be Sat. We also know that if anything is born, it must die. So, Sat must be unborn. And anything which is unborn must be uncreated (to make it existent forever).
• Everything which is born must have a cause. You were born because of your parents, and they were born because of their parents. Since Sat is unborn, it is also uncaused. No cause created it. It was and it will be always present.
• If anything changes in any way, small (e.g., atoms have been displaced) or big (e.g., planetary positions are different), it is not the same as it was before. Therefore, it cannot be Sat, because Sat is unchanging.

With this analysis, it would mean that Sat is something which is uncreated, uncaused, unborn, and unchanging. That is the meaning of Satyam or Sat. The next question: what is this Sat and where does one find Sat? If you try looking for this Sat within the objects in the world, you will never be successful. Every object in this world has a start and end date, a date of birth, and a date of death. So, it does not meet the requirements of Sat. So where does one find Sat? Since Sat is not within this world “out there,” the only other place it can be is inside us, within us. How does one look within? For this, we must take the help of the teachings of Vedanta. Vedanta teaches us that Brahman or our innermost core (Atma) is the only thing which is Sat. We have discussed this topic in  many of my essays, and we have called this inner core the Bulb of Awareness. This Bulb of Awareness is the substratum of everything in the universe. It is the most powerful force in the universe. In my book, Science Meets Vedanta, we discuss this topic in many different places.

This Bulb of Awareness was present in the past, it is present right now, and it will be present in the future. It was present even before we were born and will be present even after we die. Since the Bulb of Awareness which is within us is the only Sat (Real), then logically everything else in the universe “out there” must be Mithya or UnReal. Therefore, the statement “jagat (world) is mithya” seems logical and correct. But it does seem quite difficult to grasp the idea that the world is mithya. How can it be? We see all the objects in the world; we can touch them, dissect them, and they seem quite real. So how does one understand this idea that the world and the objects therein are unreal.

The next step is to understand these objects “out there.” What are they really? Once you properly understand the objects, you will realize that all the objects “out there” are really “memory objects”; they are not “live objects” or “now objects.” 

Understanding Objects

Do we really live in the physical world made up of “live” or “now” objects? To answer this question truthfully, I have a challenge for you—show me a “current,” “live,” or “now” object in this world. Everything you see or interact with in this world is just a memory object. It is a dated object. There are no “now” or current objects in the physical world. The sun you see is not live; it is a “now minus eight minutes” version of the sun. Why? We know it takes light eight minutes to reach us from the sun, so the sun we see in the sky is a “now minus eight minutes” sun. It is not a “now” version of the sun. It is a dated version of the sun.

The sun we see is not a “live,” or “now” sun; it is basically a memory object which is a “now minus eight minutes” version. In the same way, the moon we see at night is a “now minus three seconds” version of the moon, because light takes three seconds to reach us from the moon. The plane in the sky is a “now minus 300 milliseconds” version; the tree outside my window is a “now minus 10 microseconds” version. This logic applies to every object in the physical world. It is just impossible for anyone to know or interact with a “live” or “now” object in this physical world. We interact only with memory objects. This not only applies to objects but also to people, animals, and any living being. For every object in the world, light will take a finite amount of time to reach us, and therefore they are only memory objects; they can never be “live” or “now” objects. Therefore, anything and everything in this physical universe is made up of only memory objects.

What an amazing conclusion; it so logical, so simple and straightforward to understand. So, if the objects are not “live” or “now” objects, then in a way they are really mithya objects. They are unreal objects; they are memory or mithya objects. The next question which surfaces is: can these memory objects exist on their own or are they dependent on something else? What is the substratum of these dated objects? What is the content of these memory objects?

Before we explore the substratum of these dated objects, it may be interesting to discover the location of the “now” or “live” objects. The memory or dated objects are what we see in the world “out there,” but where are the “now” objects? They must exist somewhere. They cannot not exist. But where? Let us explore this further.

Location of “Now” Objects: The best way to explore this topic is with an example. We saw earlier that the sun we see is a “now minus eight minutes” version. This is because light takes eight minutes to reach us. Let us play around with this idea. Suppose that, for whatever reason, the sun could move and we could see a “now minus four minutes” version of the sun … what does this mean? It means that light would take four minutes to reach us, and the sun would be located at the halfway mark, which will be nearer to us. If the sun moves even closer and we see the “now minus 30 seconds” version, it will mean that the sun is much closer to us. Using this reasoning, where do we find the “now minus zero seconds” sun? This must be the place where light will take zero seconds to reach us. The only correct answer is that the “now” version of the sun is within us as light will take zero seconds to reach us. This is the Observer within us. The “now” version of the sun is within the Observer, which is our inner core. This logic and reasoning apply not only to the sun but to every object in the universe. The location of all the “now” objects is within this Observer. Not an easy concept to grasp, but it is the only truth. Vedanta teaches us that there is a fully functioning universe made up of “now” objects which is part of our inner core. This inner core includes the Observer.

Makeup of Objects

We have just seen that there are only memory objects in the world “out there.” The question to investigate is whether these memory objects can exist on their own or they are dependent on something else. What is the content of these memory objects? What is the substratum of these objects? Scientists will tell us that these objects are made up of atoms and subatomic particles. They have found so many different subatomic particles, but they still have not found the ultimate substratum of all the objects. They are looking for the “Theory of Everything,” the substratum of everything in the universe. They can spend billions of dollars investigating, but they will never find the substratum of these memory objects in the world “out there.” They need a fresh and different approach. They need an approach based on the teachings of Vedanta.

A simple question—how do you know an object exists? The obvious answer is that you are aware of the object. Since you are aware, you are sure the object exists. If awareness is not present, then the object will not exist. Awareness is the basic ingredient of any object. This Awareness must fill up the object, take the exact shape as the object, so that you can be aware of the object. If you are aware of the tree outside your window, Awareness must fill up the tree completely, so that you are aware of the full tree. Awareness cannot fill up half the tree—then you would be aware of only half the tree. If you are new to my essays, I would recommend reading my book, Science Meets Vedanta. In the book, I have given a detailed analysis of the different powers of Awareness. If you properly understand Awareness, you will understand this world.

So, it seems that there is Awareness present, and the object form is superimposed on this Awareness to complete the object.

1. If you are aware of the car outside your window, it is because the form of the car is superimposed on Awareness.
2. If you are aware of the music from your device, it is because the form of the music is superimposed on Awareness.
3. If you are aware of the taste of the chocolate, it is because the taste form of chocolate is superimposed on Awareness.

Awareness is the ingredient, the substratum of all objects “out there.” Object forms vary, but the content of all objects is Awareness. The classic example given by Vedanta to understand this is the pot/clay example. We have a wide range of pots—small, big, round, etc., but the content of each pot is only clay. The forms may be different, but the content is only clay. You will notice that the pot form cannot exist on its own; the clay content is a must. Without the clay, there can be no pot form. In fact if you look for pot form, you will only find clay, you will never find pot form. This is exactly what happens with Awareness/form. There is such a wide range of object forms in the world. The content of all these objects is Awareness alone. These objects cannot exist without Awareness. If you look for object form, you will only find Awareness only. Just like clay is the only content of pots, in the same way Awareness is the only content of memory objects.

Did you notice that Awareness, which is the substratum of all the memory objects, is nothing but Sat? As we have discussed earlier, Sat is the Bulb of Awareness shining Awareness and is the content of every memory object. The object forms are superimposed on this Sat. The correct approach to understanding memory objects is that the content of each object is Sat only, but the object form is mithya. The object form cannot have an independent existence; it is totally dependent upon the content, which is Sat.

So, the correct understanding of Mithya is not UnReal or False, but something which does not have an independent existence and is dependent upon something else for its existence. In the case of memory objects, the existence is dependent upon Awareness or Sat. Without Awareness, there can be no objects in the world. So, Brahma (Inner Core) is Sat and Jagat (World) is Mithya. This Jagat is dependent upon Sat for its existence. Therefore, Jagat is Mithya.

When we buy a laptop or any similar device, the first thing we check is the specification of the CPU (Central Processing Unit). What is the processing power of the CPU? How fast is the processor? How many instructions can the CPU handle per second? The more instructions it can handle per second, the faster and better the device. Over the years, the speed of the CPU has improved tremendously. In the early PC models, the speed of the CPU was around 5 MHz. Now the typical speed of the laptop is over 5 GHz. The CPU is the brain of the device. The circuitry of the CPU provides intelligence to the device. These days, a CPU chip has between millions to billions of transistors built in. All this circuitry gives the CPU its brain. It is simply amazing how much is there within such a tiny chip.

So, what is the connection between the CPU and Awareness? The simple answer: Awareness is the ultimate CPU. It processes all the possible information in the universe. And we know how complex and vast is this universe. Every bit of activity anywhere in the universe is processed by Awareness. How should we understand this? First, we need to properly understand Awareness and the powers of Awareness therein. We have discussed Awareness in so many different essays. Awareness is the source of all intelligence. It is the repository for all possible knowledge. Whatever knowledge is possible must be within Awareness. Whatever information we experience is because of the intelligence within Awareness. This intelligence and knowledge process everything going on in the universe. All changes which happen around us are because of this intelligence. In this way, we can compare the device CPU to Awareness. So, just like the CPU has the processing power within a device, in the same way, Awareness has the processing power of everything which happens in this universe. It is a complex universe; so much is happening; everything is happening because of the intelligence within Awareness. It is not wrong to say that the processing speed of the Awareness CPU is infinite.

With this background, the focus of this essay is to understand the amazing processing powers of Awareness.

1. The first question which must be tackled is, where does Awareness manage all this processing? What is the location of all the activities? The answer is the cosmic mind and individual minds. We will see that each individual mind is like a local CPU, and all these minds are connected to a grand or cosmic CPU—the cosmic mind. Please note, the individual minds are not connected to each other, but only to the cosmic CPU.

2. Any CPU must have input data which must be processed. This input data is manipulated and managed within the CPU. In the same way, even the Awareness CPU requires input data. We need to understand this input data which is processed by the Awareness CPU. We can only imagine the complexity and hugeness of the input data coming from all corners of the universe. It is quite amazing how all this is processed by Awareness.  

3. Finally, we need to understand the data which is outputted by Awareness. The output data is continuously updated, and this updated output is what is experienced by each individual mind. Each individual mind has a separate and unique experience. So, you can only imagine the complexity of the output which is processed by Awareness to give each individual mind a different experience. 

Individual Mind and Cosmic Mind

We know we have a mind. We are quite sure of this. In the same way, each living being has a mind. The individual minds together form part of the cosmic mind. The cosmic mind is much more than the sum total of individual minds. Anything outside the individual minds is still part of the cosmic mind. In Vedanta, the cosmic mind is called Hiranyagarbha (Golden Egg or Golden Womb).

The starting question is—what is there within each individual mind? To answer this question, first we need to understand and analyze the experiences we have. All our perceptions, feelings, thoughts, and current thinking are nothing but the experiences we have. When we are awake, there is hardly any moment when we do not have some sort of experience. We have experiences on a continuous basis. Experiences can happen only in the mind and nowhere else.

Experience Decoded: If you think carefully, you will realize that an experience is made up of the following two components:  

Experience = Awareness + Object Form

1. Awareness: We are always aware of our experience. We can never say we had an experience but are not aware of it. This is simply not possible because awareness is a critical prerequisite and ingredient of an experience. You have an experience because you are aware of it. If there is no Awareness, there can be no Experience. Awareness processes every experience which takes place in each individual mind.

2. Object Form: The object form is superimposed on Awareness to complete the experience. The object form is the input data which is processed by Awareness. The object form comes from the five senses: eyes, nose, ears, tongue, and skin. Sometimes it is visual, sometimes it is auditory, and sometimes it is based on memories. The forms keep changing; the experience keeps changing. We will discuss the complexity of the object forms in the next section.  

Did you notice that Awareness is already present within the mind? Each individual mind has its own local Awareness CPU. Your mind has an Awareness CPU; my mind has an Awareness CPU; in fact, every living being has an Awareness CPU present in the mind. It is important to understand that the Awareness in each mind comes from the same source. The cosmic mind is the source of Awareness. This Awareness fills up all the individual minds with Awareness. The same light of Awareness is filling up all the minds in the universe with Awareness. A good example to understand this is the sun shining on an unlimited number of buckets filled with water. Each bucket of water will have a fully formed reflected sun. In the same way, the Awareness in the cosmic mind is reflected in each individual mind.

In this way, the processing power of Awareness is present within each mind. Awareness is a powerhouse of intelligence, and this intelligence is present in each mind. This intelligence turns each mind into an intelligent CPU. Each individual mind has a CPU, and it is connected with Awareness within the cosmic mind.

Understanding the Input Data

We are used to the gross universe, that is, all the objects we see around us. Each one of us, living in different parts of the world, sees a different set of gross objects. If we live in the same area, we will see different aspects of the same objects. Basically, we experience gross objects. If we follow Vedanta, we will learn that every gross object also has a subtle version. This subtle version is made up of waveforms or vrittis. This means that every object in the universe has a gross version and a subtle version (made up of waveforms). Even quantum physics confirms this fact. The wave/particle duality of quantum physics is exactly the same as taught by Vedanta. It is amazing that Vedanta and quantum physics teach us the same fact of wave/particle duality. However, Vedanta goes a step deeper by saying there is a fully functioning subtle universe made up of vrittis. Further, Vedanta teaches that everything happens first in this subtle universe and then this is projected “out there” as the gross universe.

In the subtle universe, there is a cosmic waveform which is the sum total of all the waveforms of individual objects. This cosmic waveform is indeed very complex and massive. Let us try and understand the composition of this cosmic waveform.

1.   Every object must have a unique waveform. These object waveforms must include the following five characteristics: vision, sound, smell, taste, and touch. That is, what shape the object will have, what sound it will make, what smell it will have, what taste it will have, and how it will feel to the touch. These properties are inbuilt in the object waveform, and all these together define the profile of the objects.

2. It must be understood that a waveform represents the profile of an object at any given moment. As time passes, the object waveform will also change. A new waveform is created with every passing moment. No object waveform is lost. All the past waveforms are still available within the object waveform. All the past waveforms, right from the birth of the object to this current moment, combine to create a single waveform for the object. The object waveform is the total of all the waveforms for the object, right from its inception to the present time.

The waveform of an object is the total of all the profiles since the birth of the object. For example, the sun is over 4.5 billion years old. The profile of the sun will include all the waveforms for every passing moment. Every moment in time is part of the waveform for the sun. All these individual waveforms combine to create a “grand” waveform for the sun. As time passes, new waveforms are added to the cumulative profile of the sun. In the sun’s cumulative waveform, the profile for each moment of the sun since inception is available.

We have just seen the example of the sun with all the historical waveforms. This will apply to all the objects in the universe. Every object in the universe is a cumulative waveform of every moment in time. Your waveform will be a total of all the waveforms since your birth. The trees, cars, planets, galaxies—each one of them will have a time-wise total waveform.

3. To add to the complexity of the waveforms, all objects in the universe with their own cumulative waveforms will combine to create one big waveform for the universe. We can call this the cosmic waveform. This cosmic waveform includes everything which is contained in the universe. Nothing is left out—right from the smallest atom to the largest galaxies. All the historical timelines for each object are present. The size of this massive cosmic waveform is simply breathtaking.

This complicated and massive cosmic waveform operates within the cosmic mind. Awareness works with this cosmic input data. This cosmic data is the input source of Awareness.

Awareness and Data Processing: As we have mentioned earlier, Awareness is the ultimate intelligence. All possible intelligence, all possible knowledge is within Awareness. When the cosmic waveform encounters Awareness, these waveforms become intelligent. Yes, the waveforms do become intelligent, that is the power of Awareness. These object waveforms now are made up of knowledge. They know what they are. This intelligence and knowledge provide the processing power for the cosmic waveforms. This processing of the cosmic waveform takes place both in the cosmic mind and in individual minds. Let us try and understand what happens in the cosmic mind and what happens in the individual mind:

Cosmic Mind: The bulk of the processing of the waveforms takes place in the cosmic mind. A lot is happening in the cosmic mind. It is impossible to understand everything that is happening in the cosmic mind. It is beyond the comprehension of the human intellect. We can only speculate, so let us try that.     

1. The intelligence and the processing power of Awareness is available within the cosmic mind. This intelligence is the source of all the properties, features, and functions of the object waveform. We know an object has many different properties—boiling point, freezing point, what color it is, what smell it is, etc. The list of properties can go on. Intelligence codifies the knowledge of the properties and features within the object waveform—just like coding is done in a software program. This coding adds knowledge to the software program. Think of any specific property of an object; that property is codified within the object waveform. How this is done is beyond the comprehension of any human intellect. However, this is definitely happening. This is possible because of the intelligence and the processing power which reside within Awareness. All this property codification of the object waveforms happens in the cosmic mind.  

2. No object waveform can reside in isolation. It must interact with other objects’ waveforms. When objects interact, there is a tendency to modify each other. We observe and experience this interaction and modification everywhere in nature. All the changes and modifications are codified by the intelligence present within Awareness. There are an unlimited number of variables interacting with each other. All this is known to Awareness.

3. We know all objects undergo change due to time. With every moment, each object is updated; nothing remains the same. As time flows, each object waveform must be modified and updated. What a huge undertaking this is! All this processing happens in the cosmic mind alone. Awareness, together with time, is the force behind the updating of all object waveforms. So many objects, so much processing, all taking place in the cosmic mind.

Wow, it is just unimaginable to comprehend the continuous processing which takes place within the cosmic mind. We must thank the power of Awareness for this.   

Individual Minds: We have just seen all the complex processing which takes place in the cosmic mind. So, what happens in the individual minds? We have discussed earlier that Awareness is present in each mind. This means that the power of intelligence is available within each mind. This intelligence is thus used to process data in the individual minds. A lot does happen in individual minds. Let us try and understand this.

1. A part or a subset of the cosmic waveform is made available to the individual mind. A good example to understand this is to compare it with Google maps. Google maps must have a centralized server where all the possible information is stored. This centralized server stores the data of almost all the roads and important landmarks worldwide. This is indeed quite huge and complex. This information may be huge, but we use only a small portion of this data. For example, when you are in Delhi, you see only the maps around your area in Delhi. In the same way, another person living in New York will see only the maps of their local area. There is a centralized server, but only local maps are available to each person. This is exactly the relationship between the cosmic waveform and the waveforms within each individual mind. The cosmic waveform has everything, while the individual mind only has a subset of this cosmic waveform. This subset in the individual mind will depend on the location of the person. This local mind will only have waveforms of objects which are around the person. This is exactly what happens to Google maps, which shows only the local area.

2. So, what happens to the local data in the individual mind? It may sound unbelievable, but the local mind projects the subset content as the universe “out there.” Yes, the local mind is like a projector. The intelligence within Awareness helps process the data to be projected “out there.” This idea may be counterintuitive and revolutionary, but it is only the truth. To convince you of the truth of this interpretation, I would request you to read the essay “Projection—The Only Truth” in my book Science Meets Vedanta. I have given a detailed analysis of this topic—why projection is the only truth and how this projection works. Vedanta teaches us that each mind projects its own universe.

Each individual mind functions like a projector. We know there are an unlimited number of living beings, and each living being has a mind. Each individual mind has a subset of the cosmic waveform. The Awareness present in the mind processes the information, and then the mind projects the gross universe “out there.” There are an unlimited number of mind projectors, and each mind projects what it perceives around it. It is simply amazing that the intelligence of Awareness manages all this so effortlessly and seamlessly. The processing power of Awareness is beyond comprehension.

3. The gross body (ego) interacts with the objects around us on a continuous basis. When it thus interacts, the ego modifies the objects. A simple example: we break a branch or move a stone from one place to another. Whenever such changes, small or big, take place, the individual mind reports the changes to the cosmic mind. The cosmic mind then updates and modifies the cosmic waveform instantaneously. When someone else views the tree or the stone, they will perceive the updated version of the tree and stone. In this way, individual living beings are continuously changing the environment around them, and this is reported to the cosmic mind, whereupon the cosmic waveform is updated. All this communication between the individual mind and cosmic mind is processed by the Awareness CPU.

The only conclusion to draw from this essay is that we must be humbled by the power of intelligence which is present within Awareness. All the intelligence we see in the universe, the source is Awareness. This Awareness is the substratum of everything in the universe. What is most amazing is that this Awareness is present within us. This Awareness is our innermost core. This Awareness is the ultimate CPU, and its processing power is infinite.

What is there within the mind? A one-word answer is—thoughts. Thoughts and more thoughts. The mind is a bundle of thoughts. It is made up of thoughts. If there are no thoughts, there will be no mind. During the waking state and during the dream state, we have a continuous and unlimited number of thoughts. Only during deep sleep or dreamless sleep are there no thoughts. The mind is continuously operational except during deep sleep. 

We can see that a lot happens in the mind. Is there a structure within the mind by which it can function in an organized manner? Are there different types or levels of thoughts? With a proper understanding of the mind, this question can be answered easily. Let us start the discussion by exploring the following three statements, which we use on a regular basis:  

1. I am perceiving a tree.
2. I am learning math.
3. I am feeling happy.

“I am” is common to all three statements. This “I am” is the ego within each of us. This ego interacts with the thought of perceiving a tree, of learning math, and of feeling happy. Study these three statements and answer a question—which of the three statements seems closest to the ego and which feels the furthest away from the ego? Which statement seems closest to you? Does perceiving seem closer or learning or feeling? Take a moment to think and ponder on this question.

I am sure you will conclude that feeling happy seems closest to you. It is like the ego itself which is feeling happy or feeling any other possible emotion. So, the sense of feeling happy or any other emotion is something very close to the ego. At the other end of the scale, perceiving the tree does feel farthest to the ego. Perceiving the tree or any other object with the five senses seems less connected to the ego. It seems distant. It seems that the external objects are “out there,” and the ego is “in here” within us. They are quite apart from each other. In that respect, learning math is somewhere in the middle of this scale. Learning, thinking, or understanding is a thought, but this thought is not as close as feeling an emotion. But it is closer than perceiving external objects.

From the above discussion, it does seem that there are three layers in the Mind. Perceiving seems like the outermost layer, while feeling is the innermost layer, and thinking, etc. is the middle layer. So, the conclusion is that the Mind is made up of three layers. Is there any way to corroborate this conclusion? The teaching of Vedanta will corroborate this fact. Vedanta teaches us that there are three koshas which operate within the Mind. Kosha is a Sanskrit word which means “sheath” or “layer.” The following are the three koshas functioning in the Mind:

1. Vijnanamaya Kosha: sheath made of intelligence/knowledge.
2. Anandamaya Kosha: sheath made of emotions.
3. Manomaya Kosha: sheath made of mind stuff (for objects).

 The word “maya” in each kosha means “made of.” The “made of” used above is not some abstract term. It literally means that the kosha is made of the things stated above. For example:

• Vijnanamaya Kosha is made of intelligence. Intelligence is the substratum of this kosha. Just like any material is made up of atoms and molecules, in the same way this kosha is made up of intelligence. Anything which comes in contact with this kosha becomes intelligent. Thinking, learning, and understanding are possible because of this kosha, which is present in the Mind. This intelligence is the amazing power of the Vijnanamaya Kosha.
• In the same way, the Anandamaya Kosha is the source of all the possible emotions in the Mind. The Mind has a wide range of emotions—anger, sadness, happiness, jealousy, envy, generosity—all these emotions are created by the Anandamaya Kosha. For any emotion you have in your mind, you can thank Anandamaya Kosha.
• Lastly, Manomaya Kosha is the source of all the possible objects. It has the power to become any object.  

Wow! What powers are inherent in these three koshas. These three powerful koshas are present in each and every mind. We are indeed lucky to have such power within our minds. Two questions come up—what is the source of these koshas and how did these koshas become part of the mind?  

Note: Vedanta teaches us that there are two more koshas—Annamaya Kosha and Pranamaya Kosha. Annamaya Kosha is the physical body and Pranamaya Kosha is the kosha which powers the body. Since these two koshas are external to the mind, we shall not discuss them in this essay.

 SatChitAnanda—The Source of the Koshas

SatChitAnanda is the source of all the powers of the Koshas. SatChitAnanda is our innermost core and is present in each living being. It is important to understand the terms “Sat,” “Chit,” and “Ananda.”

Sat: Sat means Real. In any dictionary, the word “real” will have many meanings, which do help in understanding Sat. In Vedanta, “Sat” or “Real” means existence in all three tenses—existing in the past, present, and future. Nothing in the universe meets this requirement. Everything in the universe is changing and has an end date. Our inner core is the only Sat. It is our REAL SELF. Our REAL SELF was there in the past, it is there right now, and it will always be present in the future. It is always present, and it is unchanging.  

Chit: Chit is the nature of Sat. Chit is Awareness. As we have discussed in many essays, Awareness is made of Subject, Object, and Intelligence, and it has three different powers—Knower, Known, and Knowing. Subject has Power of the Knower, Object has Power of the Known, and Intelligence has Power of Knowing.

Awareness = Subject + Object + Intelligence

Power of Awareness = Power of Knower + Power of Known + Power of Knowing

• Power of the Knower manipulates Awareness to become a Subject—a Subject is a reader, listener, seer, talker, eater, etc.
• Power of the Known manipulates Awareness so that Awareness takes the shape of the object coming from the five senses—just like Play-Doh can be manipulated to become an object.
• Power of Knowing is the Intelligence part of Awareness. All possible knowledge and intelligence are available within Awareness. Power of Knowing extracts this knowledge from Awareness.

The three powers of Awareness have been discussed in many different places in my book,  Science Meets Vedanta.

Ananda: Ananda or Bliss is the nature of Sat. The other terms used for Ananda are Love and Happiness. Sat’s nature is bliss because it is full and complete with no shortcomings. It has no needs or requirements. When you are in that state of fullness, Bliss, Love, and Happiness is your nature. You radiate this Bliss to everything around. This power of Ananda is the nature of Sat.  

Sat is our innermost core and the nature of this Sat is Awareness and Ananda. This Sat radiates both Awareness and Ananda. You can say SatChitAnanda is like a bulb shining both Awareness and Love. It is shining the three powers of Awareness and the power of Happiness. SatChitAnanda does not do anything other than radiate its nature—Awareness and Love.

Ignorance and Koshas

We just seen that our innermost core is SatChitAnanda. This REAL SELF is shining Awareness and Happiness. Do we realize or know this fact? The answer is most likely “No.” When we forget this fact, we have forgotten we are SatChitAnanda. When we forget that we are SatChitAnanda, a veil of Ignorance covers up this bulb of Awareness + Happiness.

The bulb shining Awareness + Ananda interacts with this veil of ignorance. The three powers of Awareness and the power of Happiness are absorbed by Ignorance to become the different koshas in the Mind. This is how the koshas are created. They are created by the powers of SatChitAnanda when interacting with the veil of Ignorance. The following koshas are created by these powers:

• Manomaya Kosha has the Power of Known.
• Vijnanamaya Kosha has the Power of Knowing.
• Anandamaya Kosha has the Power of Happiness.

The quality of the koshas would depend upon the absorption level of Ignorance of the soul. The greater the Ignorance, the less the absorption of the powers. The purer the soul, the more the absorption of the powers. This means that each mind has a different absorption level of these powers. Each mind would have a different quality of koshas.

These powers are extremely powerful, and they function within the koshas.

To summarize—due to Ignorance, the powers within SatChitAnanda become the powerful koshas within the Mind. These powers drive the koshas in the Mind.

Roles of the Different Koshas

Each kosha plays a different and distinct role. Let us try to understand this.

Perceiving: The perceiving of objects takes place in the Manomaya Kosha. The Manomaya Kosha is connected to the five organs of the senses. The input signal comes from the five senses—it could be vision, sound, touch, smell, and taste, or even internal memories; the perception of these objects takes place in the Manomaya Kosha. For example, when the input signal is for a tree, the Manomaya Kosha with Power of Known creates the required material code which makes up the tree. To understand this, let us imagine an image of a tree on our laptop. This tree image on the laptop screen must have a jpeg file or equivalent which has all the required code for the tree. This code will allow the image to become a tree on the laptop. In the same fashion, Power of Known will manipulate Awareness to add the material code, so that the input signal can become a tree. If the input is music, it creates the material code which makes up the sound of the music. In this way, it handles all the input signals coming from the outside world. The complexity of this material code, that too for the infinite objects we perceive in the universe, is beyond our comprehension. Every object must have the material code which is provided by the Power of Known.

Perception does take place in the Manomaya Kosha, but the kosha has no clue what these objects are. It creates the source material, but it is clueless what it is. The Manomaya Kosha needs help; it therefore passes on the input signals to the Vijnanamaya Kosha for decoding.

Learning/Thinking: Vijnanamaya Kosha has intelligence, it is made up of intelligence. At the time of birth, the Vijnanamaya Kosha is a blank slate. With the power of intelligence, it learns continuously and acquires a great deal of knowledge. With this learning, it decodes the input signal. In the process of decoding, it adds intelligence to the object waveform. It is like the CPU of a computer. The input signal comes from the Manomaya Kosha, and the output is an object waveform which is made of knowledge. Knowledge is the substratum of the waveform. The object waveform has the knowledge of what the waveform represents. All the learning, thinking, remembering, and understanding takes place in this kosha. Adding intelligence to the waveform is an amazing power of the Vijnanamaya Kosha.    

Feeling: The feeling of emotions is created by the Anandamaya Kosha. The name “Anandamaya” does not convey this idea accurately. Anandamaya means maker of happiness, but this kosha has both positive and negative emotions.

How are these emotions created within the Anandamaya Kosha? While discussing SatChitAnanda, we saw that the nature of Sat is Ananda. This Ananda means Bliss, Happiness, Love, and Peace. Sat is a bulb shining Bliss, Happiness, Love, and Peace. This light is completely pure—100% pure happiness, love, peace, and bliss. There is not even an iota of impurity. Impurity is just impossible. Since we have forgotten our true nature, the veil of Ignorance covers up this bulb. This pure light interacts with the veil of Ignorance. Since we have forgotten that we are happiness, this ignorance creates the emotion of unhappiness within the Anandamaya Kosha. Since we have forgotten we are Love, ignorance creates a range of emotions of hatred in the kosha. Since we have forgotten we are Calmness, the emotion of anger is created in the kosha. Forgetting that our nature is Peace, ignorance creates conflict and irritation. So, we can see that a full spectrum of emotions is created and is available within the Anandamaya Kosha. Our ignorance is the source of all the emotions.

The ego is looking for permanent peace and happiness in the world. We saw that the Vijnanamaya Kosha decodes objects (waveforms) coming in from the five sense organs in the Manomaya Kosha. These objects are presented to the Ahamkara or Ego. What does the Ahamkara do with these object waveforms? The ego has a clear goal—it is looking for continuous happiness. It evaluates the object waveform against this key criterion. If the ego thinks an object can provide that happiness, it will like that object. If the ego thinks that it will not provide that happiness, it will dislike that object. In Vedanta, this is called raga (like)/dvesha (dislike). The ego will run toward the object it likes and run away from objects which it dislikes. The ego undertakes this task for all the thoughts and objects which it encounters.

This is how the ego interacts with the object waveform presented by the Vijnanamaya Kosha, and it adds the sense of feeling to the object waveform with its likes/dislikes. The Anandamaya Kosha starts to feel a range of emotions covering the entire spectrum. It feels happiness, sadness, anger, jealousy, attraction, repulsion, and so on. This sense of feeling takes place in the Anandamaya Kosha.

The Mind is a very powerful tool with some amazing powers. The source of these powers is SatChitAnanda—our REAL SELF. We need to be grateful for all the powers at our disposal.

Who is seeing the tree? For that matter – who is listening to the music? Who is tasting the ice cream? Who is smelling the fragrance of the rose? Who is feeling the coolness of the air? We have these types of experiences all through the day. It does seem that there is an Observer within us who is the witness to all these experiences. This Observer is the seer of the tree, listener of the music, taster of the ice cream, smeller of the rose and the feeler of the cold air.

1. Did you notice this Observer is a complex entity and it plays so many different roles.

• When it is seeing the tree, it is the seer of the tree.
• When it is listening to music, it is the listener of the music.
• When it is tasting the ice cream, it is the taster of the ice cream.
• When it is smelling the rose, it is the smeller of the rose.
• When it is feeling the coolness of the air, it is feeler of the cold air.

This list can go on. Wow! what a multifaced and varied entity is this Observer. There is one Observer within us, who is playing all different roles of a seer, listener, taster, smeller, or feeler and many more such roles. This Observer is indeed a very dynamic entity, at the drop of a hat it keeps changing its role all through the day. For one moment it is a seer of a tree, the next moment it could be a listener of the music, then back to the seer of the car ahead, then the smeller of perfume of a passerby. With every change of experience, the Observer plays a different role. The profile of the Observer keeps changing so rapidly all through the day. It is simply amazing. It is impossible to know how many times the Observer’s role changes all through the day.   

From this discussion it does seem that the Observer is a very powerful and dynamic entity. It is worthwhile contemplating on this amazing entity which is within each one of us.

2. So who is this Observer? The most likely answer is that ‘I am’ this observer. After all I am seeing the tree, or I am listening to the music, or I am tasting the ice cream. This is what we experience every moment. There is no way we can deny this feeling. All our lives, we’ve been very sure that we are the Observer of all these experiences. The next question is who is ‘I am’? The most likely answer is that ‘I am’ is the ego. We all have a feeling of ‘I am’ – ego is another name to this feeling of ‘I am’.  We are sure that this ego is the observer of all the experiences.

If ego is the observer of all the experiences, it makes you wonder where ego gets the power to become an observer. To become a seer, listener, taster, smeller, and feeler of all the experiences. Are these powers inherent in the Ego or is it dependent on something external to itself?

3. There is also the possibility that the Observer and the Ego are two separate entities. The Observer is a powerful and dynamic entity which is the witness to all the experiences. The Ego is nothing but our personality profile and the storehouse of all the pending karmas awaiting results. All our desires, all our plus and minus personality traits make up the ego. From this understanding it does indicate that the role of being an observer or witness of experiences is not one of the functions of the ego. Unfortunately, the idea that ego or ‘I am’ is the observer is deep rooted and separating the ‘I am’ – the ego and Observer is not that easy. Much more clarity and understanding on this topic is required.

4. If you properly understand the teachings of Vedanta, you will appreciate that the Observer is a part of Awareness (your Real Self), while the ego is just another thought wave, like any object vritti (waveform) in your mind. This thought wave of ‘I am’ masquerades as the Real Self. This is where the fallacy is. The Ego thinks it is the Real Self and latches on to the Observer. To put it more directly, you can also say that the Ego hijacks the Observer to give the impression that it is the Observer. This is so far from the truth.

The focus of this essay is to explain the differences between the Observer and Ego. This will explain who is really seeing the tree and the role of Ego in this process.

Observer and Awareness

The Observer is an integral part of Awareness. If you are aware of an object, there must be an Observer who is aware of the object. If there is no Observer, there can be no awareness, as there will no one to witness the object. Therefore, the Observer is a key ingredient of Awareness.

Besides Observer, the Observed (objects) and Intelligence are the other two components which make up Awareness. As we have discussed in many essays, Awareness is made up of an Observer, the Observed, and Intelligence, and it has three different powers of Awareness.

• Awareness = Observer + Observed + Intelligence
• Power of Awareness = Power of Knower + Power of Known + Power of Knowing

Whenever you are aware of anything, there must be present the Observer, the Observed, and Intelligence, with all the three attendant powers. If any one of them is missing, there will be no Awareness.

Understanding the Power of the Knower– In my book ‘Science Meets Vedanta’ we have discussed the three powers of Awareness in many different places. Over here we will once again briefly discuss the Power of Knower, which is the power behind the Observer.

The Power of Knower allows the Observer to become the seer, listener, smeller, feeler, and taster. The Power of Knower manipulates Awareness so that Awareness becomes an Observer. For example, there is a tree out there. How does one witness the tree? This is a basic and fundamental question. The ability to see the tree or any other external object is lying within Awareness. This power of Seeing is part of Awareness. The Power of Knower taps into this power so that Awareness becomes an Observer for that moment. The next moment you are listening to music. Now the Power of Knower taps into the power of listening which is within Awareness to make Awareness the listener of the music. In the same way, Awareness becomes a  witness – the Observer of all types of experiences.

We must thank this Power of Awareness, which gives us the ability to witness the world out there.   

Ego and Observer

The Real Self is Awareness and Awareness is the Real Self. Our inner core is SatChitAnanda. Sat is our Real Self and Chit (Awareness) and Ananda (Bliss) is the nature of our Real Self. Unfortunately, we have forgotten our Real Self. The moment we forget our Real Self, a veil of Ignorance covers SatChitAnanda. By covering the identity of the Real Self, Ignorance creates a new entity – the Ego. This Ego masquerades as the Real Self, but it is nothing but a thought wave or vritti in the mind. It may be difficult to believe that our ego is just a thought wave. Yes, Ego is only a thought wave. It, however, thinks and behaves like it is the Real Self.

We have seen that the Observer and the Power of Knower is part and parcel of Awareness. So, you can see the difference. The Observer is part of Awareness, and the Ego is made up of Ignorance. They are two separate entities. It should be clear that the Ego is not the Observer. We witness everything around us because of the Observer within Awareness and not because of our Ego. Do we feel this way? The answer is No. We always feel we are the Observer; the Ego is the Observer. This is very deep rooted within us – we cannot think otherwise. How to understand this – if we are not the Observer, why do we feel we (ego) is the Observer?

As just mentioned, the Ego masquerades as the Real Self, it thinks it is the Real Self. It literally captures and takes over the role of the Observer. It does look like the Observer does not fight back; it cedes this take over voluntarily. Maybe this is how it has been designed by nature. For this reason, it does appear that the Ego is the Observer, but technically the Observer is part of Awareness and Ego is a separate entity.

The Role of Ego: So, what is the role of the Ego? We have an unlimited number of experiences in the mind. The ego interacts with these experiences on a continuous basis. In fact, it can be said that the ego cannot sit still. Whenever there is an experience, the ego must react in some fashion. How does the ego react to an experience? It either likes the experience (raga) or it dislikes the experience (dvesha). It either is attracted to or repelled by an experience. This raga (like)/dvesha (dislike) is the natural response of the ego towards any experience. It is important to note that the ego does not sit still, it must react to any experience.

The ego adds raga/dvesha to any experience. By doing so the ego has modified the experience. Because it adds this raga/dvesha to an experience, you canunderstand that ownership of that experience now belongs to the Ego. This modified experience now has two components – the basic experience and the modified part of raga/dvesha. The modified part is added by the ego, and it belongs to the ego.

This is where the Doctrine of Karma comes into play. Since the ego has modified the experience, it must get some results. A simple rule – every action must have a result. Since the ego has modified the experience, the ego must get a result. According to the Doctrine of Karma, if the modification of the experience is positive, the result for the ego is good (punya karma). If the modification is negative, the ego will suffer a bad result (papa karma). Let us discuss some examples so that this point becomes clear.

• People think that when we talk it is karma. This is incorrect. Talking is natural and is a standard feature which comes with the body. The human body is meant to talk. However, it is only when you talk negatively or positively about anyone that you have done a bad or good karma.
• Walking is a natural action. There is no karma when you walk. However, while walking you see an insect and with purpose you squash it with your foot. The intentional squashing of the insect is karma. However, if without your knowing an insect comes under your foot, this is not karma because the ego is not involved.
• If you have ears, you are going to listen to things. For example, if you listen indifferently to all the chattering around you in the airport lounge, that is not karma; it is natural. However, if you get irritated by all the noise around you, that is karma.
• Watching the physical world outside is natural. If you are standing in front of a few people, you cannot say you do not want to see them. Seeing is natural, you have no power to stop this. However, if you make a judgment—what a horrible shirt someone is wearing, or how nice this person is looking—these judgment calls are karmas.

As a conclusion we can say that the Observer, which is part of Awareness, is the witness to all the experiences. In contrast we feel the ego is the witness to the experiences. We may feel this way, but the ego has no powers or capacity to become the Observer. However, it interlinks closely with the Observer to give an incorrect impression that it is the witness. Also, the ego takes ownership of the experience by modifying the experience by adding raga (like)/dvesha (dislike).

Yes, there are two distinct worlds – World of Forms and World of Content. You cannot live in both the worlds at the same time; you can only live in either one of the worlds. Most of us live in the World of Forms. This is the only world we know. All the forms are the different objects in the universe. There is a large variety of forms or objects that we perceive through our five senses. There is an unlimited number of objects seen through our eyes. What a variety of sound forms we hear through our ears! In the same way, there is a huge variety of smell forms, taste forms, and touch forms. What a complex and massive number of forms are present in the universe! We (our ego) interact with these object forms daily. From the moment we wake in the morning till the time we go to sleep, we are immersed in these objects. These forms and objects are the only thing we know, and the world of forms seems absolutely real. We have no doubt about this fact.

What about the World of Content? Most people may answer that the world of content is part of the world of forms. There is no separate world of content. The world of content is the underlying substratum of these object forms. So, what is the substratum of these object forms? Science will tell you that subatomic particles are the basis of all the visual object forms, so logically they are part of the world of content. All objects are made up of these subatomic particles. Is this correct? Are subatomic particles really part of the world of content? As science has advanced, so has the depth of knowledge of subatomic particles. Initially, it was thought that atoms were the building blocks of all the object forms. Then, it was found that electrons, protons, and neutrons make up the object forms. The question which comes up is: of what are these particles made? On investigation, it was found that quarks and other such particles make up the next layer. Is this the ultimate layer? No, scientists are already speculating that vibrating strings are the next layer. Currently, the search continues to understand the vibrating strings. If they do find this layer, the next question would be: of what are the vibrating strings made? These questions can continue endlessly. So, finding the World of Content looks difficult.    

Scientists want to find the ultimate layer—the Theory of Everything, a source which is common to all the object forms. The problem is that there is a lack of proper understanding of what is content and what is form. By investigating the subatomic particles, they think they are working in the world of content, to understand the building blocks of the object forms. But, in reality, all subatomic particles are very much part of the world of forms; they are not the content. These subatomic particles appear as inner layers of objects, but they still aren’t part of the world of content. They function only within the world of forms.

So, what is the World of Content? The best way to start this discussion is to understand the popular Vedanta metaphor of pot/clay.

Pot/Clay Metaphor

We know that clay pots come in many different sizes, shapes, and designs. Some are tall, some are short, some are round, etc. There seem to be unlimited possibilities for shapes and sizes. If you study all the clay pots carefully, you will see that each clay pot has the following two components: content and form. So, which part is the content and which part is the form? The answer is obvious—the clay is the content, and the pot is a form of the clay. With different shapes and sizes, the form of the pot could vary, but the content of all the pots will always be clay. 

Clay Pot = Clay (content) + Pot (form)

A simple question: in the clay pot, what is the weight of the clay (which is the content), and what is the weight of the pot (which is the form)? The answer is obvious: the clay has all the weight, and the pot has no weight. Another question: can you separate the form of the pot from its clay content? The answer is that it is impossible to separate the pot form from the clay content. They are inseparable. The pot form is an idea or concept which has been superimposed on the clay. Remove the clay, and the pot form just disappears. Without the clay, the pot form cannot exist.  In all the pot forms, clay is the only content. Clay is the common content for all the pot forms.

People admire the features of the pot forms, without realizing that all the pots’ forms are only clay. The focus is on the form and not on the content. They will say, “What a lovely pot”; they will not say, “What lovely clay.”

Here are some important conclusions that we can draw from the above discussion:   

1. Every object in the universe must have two components—Form and Content.
2. Content is the only ingredient. There can be no form without content. Form is just an idea superimposed on the content. The form is external to the content.
3. The form cannot exist on its own. It is always dependent on the content. Without the content, there can be no form. However, the content can exist on its own; it does not need any form.
4. If you superimpose a form on the content, there is no change to the content. The content will always remain the content. In this case, clay will remain clay irrespective of the form it is given.
5. All the world forms are made up of the same content. This common content makes up the world of content. Clay is the common content to all the pot forms.
6. We all focus on the forms of the objects and not the content.

The clay/pot is just a metaphor. Let us apply these conclusions to the real world. Let us investigate the World of Content and the World of Forms. 

World of Content

So, what is the content of all the objects in the universe? Vedanta teaches us that a good starter question is: how do we know an object exists? The simple answer is that we are aware of the object. We see it, we know it, we can touch it, and we are aware of it.

How do we know the tree is green? Because we are aware of it. 
How do we know sugar is sweet? Because we are aware of it. 
How do we know we have two legs and two hands? Because we are aware of them. 
How do we know the weight of the chair is 20 lb? Because we are aware of it. 
How do we know the smooth touch of silk? Because we are aware of it. 
How do we know we are listening to music? Because we are aware of it.

The common thread that connects all these questions is Awareness. Awareness is a prerequisite to observing any object. Awareness is a prerequisite for the existence of any object. Without Awareness, we would not know any objects which are perceived by the five sense organs—eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and skin. No object can exist without Awareness. Awareness must infuse the object to be perceived. To see a tree, the tree form must be imbued with Awareness, only then do we perceive the tree. Every branch, every leaf, every fruit must be infused to see the complete tree. No part or area of the tree can remain uncovered by Awareness. This logic will apply to all the objects “out there,” whether of sight, sound, taste, smell, or touch.

The next question is: from where does Awareness come? What power is there within Awareness which enables objects to be perceived? To any newcomer, Awareness is just another English word, with a dictionary meaning of “knowledge or perception of a situation or fact.” Awareness is much more than an English word. Awareness is the most powerful force in the universe, and it is the underlying reality of this universe. If you perceive an object, it must be made up of Awareness.

As we have discussed in many different essays in my book, Science Meets Vedanta, our REAL SELF is Awareness. Our innermost core is Awareness. This Self generates Awareness. This Self is like a Bulb of Awareness—it radiates and shines Awareness. It does not do anything other than radiate Awareness.

So, what is Awareness? As we have discussed in many essays, Awareness is made up of a Subject, Object, and Intelligence, and it has three different powers of Awareness.

• Awareness = Subject + Object + Intelligence
• Power of Awareness = Power of Knower + Power of Known + Power of Knowing

It must be understood that the Subject, Object, Intelligence, and the three powers are not something outside in the world; they are within Awareness and are the ingredients of Awareness. Whenever you are aware of anything, there must be present Subject, Object, and Intelligence with all the three powers. If any one of them is missing, there will be no Awareness.

How should we understand Awareness and the content of objects? Power of the Known is a power within Awareness dealing with objects. This power manipulates Awareness so that it becomes the required object. If the incoming signal is that of a tree with all its branches and leaves, Power of the Known will manipulate Awareness so that it becomes that tree. A good metaphor to explain this is that Awareness is like a lump of Play-Doh, which is formless. You can manipulate the Play-Doh to become a tree, car, or any other object. One thing which must be understood is that whatever shape you create, the content is always only Play-Doh.

In the same way, Awareness by itself is formless, but it has the potential to become any object. Power of the Known manipulates the formless Awareness to become that object. The object will depend on the input received from the five senses. Just like the Play-Doh, the object could be anything, but the content is always Awareness.

So, to summarize, the World of Content is Awareness. Awareness is our inner core, our REAL Self. So, our Real Self is the content of all the objects. This is an amazing conclusion. This is worth reflecting on and pondering upon.

World of Forms

We now know that the content of any object is Awareness. What about form? This is not an easy question to answer. In the clay/pot example, we saw that the content is clay alone. There is no place for pot form in the content. Pot form is something that is introduced from outside the clay; we can agree that it is just an idea which is superimposed on clay (by the potter). Yet, though it is external, the pot form cannot be separated from the clay. The pot form is totally dependent on the clay. The clay can exist on its own, but the pot cannot exist on its own. Even after the superimposition of the pot form, the content is still clay. There is no change to the content. The idea of the pot does not make any difference to the clay. Clay is still clay.

Using the same logic, the content of all the objects in the world is Awareness. There is no place for form in this content. There is no denying that we do see form everywhere. This form cannot be part of the content; it cannot be part of Awareness. It is something external being superimposed on Awareness. The form may be external, but it cannot be separated from the content and the form cannot exist on its own; it is totally dependent on the content.

This is where our ignorance plays a major role. When we forget our true nature, a veil of ignorance is created and covers Awareness. This veil is external to Awareness. The Veil of Ignorance has nothing to do with Awareness. See the connection—the veil of ignorance is external; the form of objects is external. Based on this, it is possible to conclude that the Veil of Ignorance is the source of the World of Forms.

Veil of Ignorance = the source of the World of Forms.

Yes, the Veil of Ignorance is the source of the World of Forms. The underlying reality of every object in the universe is ignorance. The tree outside, the car on the road, your friend sitting next to you, even the stars and planets “out there,” all the possible forms in the universe are built by ignorance. It may not be easy to comprehend how ignorance can be the source of all forms. Ignorance has that power. The classic example given by Vedanta is the rope/snake example. We are walking on the road in the evening, and we confuse a rope for a snake. We see the snake and think it is real. When we shine a torch on it, we realize it is a rope. A question: of what is the snake made? The simple answer is that it is made up of our ignorance. Our ignorance has projected the snake on the rope. Ignorance has this power. The World of Forms is made up of only ignorance.

Our ego is also a product of ignorance. Since we have forgotten our Real Self, this ignorance creates the ego. This ego masquerades as the Real Self. This ego lives in the World of Forms. This ego interacts with object forms “out there.” There is a fully functioning World of Forms, and our ego is an active participant.

Conclusion

The World of Content is the Real World. This is the world of Awareness. The Real Self is Awareness. The Real Self is the Subject, the Real Self is the Object, and the Real Self is the Intelligence. The Real Self has nothing to do with Ignorance. The Real Self has nothing to do with the Form of the Objects—it is the Content of the Objects. This is the Real World but it is unknown to the ego.

Self-realized people live in this World of Content, the world of Awareness. They have no ignorance. A more accurate statement would be to state that they are Awareness. They are the Awareness in the objects. They are not part of the form. Since they are Self-Aware, they see their own Self in all the objects. There is no separation between them and the Awareness in all the objects. Awareness in all objects is their Self. 

The World of Forms is the world of the ego and the mind. This is the world we live in. This is the world whose source is Ignorance. The ego functions in this world. Everything we see around us functions in the World of Forms. The World of Forms is elaborate; it appears so real. Such a huge universe “out there.” It appears real, but it is not real. The World of Content is the only Real World. Just like clay is the only real thing in the pot/clay example.

If you think about it, the World of Content or Awareness is hiding in plain sight. When you perceive an object, you cannot say you are not aware of that object. It is a matter of focusing on the Awareness part of the object and not on the form part of the object. If you say, “I am aware of the object” and focus on the Awareness part and not on the form part, you will conclude that the object is made up of Awareness. Practice this when smelling objects or when listening to music or when tasting objects. As long as you are aware of these experiences, Awareness must be the only content of those objects.

What is there within us? Some people may answer that our internal organs, like the stomach, heart, muscles, bones, are within us. That is true, but they are physical things—they belong to the physical world. They belong to space and time. We want to explore something which is deeper within us—our inner core. Something which is beyond space and time. Yes, our inner core is outside space and time. As we have discussed in many essays in my book, Science Meets Vedanta, the observer within us (Sakshi) is the start of space and time. It is the x=0, y=0, z=0, and t=0 for space and time. Everything behind the observer is outside space and time. The physical universe is present within space and time. Surprisingly, our inner core is a very busy place. It is a really happening place. There are many things and much activity within our inner core. There is a fully functioning universe within us. For example:

• SatChitAnanda (Self-Shining bulb of Awareness)
• Ishvara (God) with Maya Shakti
• Infinite Energy and Time
• Unlimited Intelligence and Knowledge
• Cosmic Mind and Individual Minds
• Subtle universe made of intelligent waveforms (vrittis)

Wow! There are an amazing number of things within us. It sounds almost unbelievable—all this is within each of us. In fact, it is more complex and complete than anything in the physical world. This internal universe is pretty much unknown to us. It is therefore important to understand it. What is most intriguing is that both Ishvara and SatChitAnanda are within us.

In this essay we will try to analyze our inner universe in a structured and logical manner. Hopefully, this will help any seeker to gain knowledge of Ishvara and of the functioning of the inner universe. Hopefully, this knowledge will help any seeker to get closer to Ishvara.  

All that is within us can be grouped into the following four levels:

1. Level 1: SatChitAnanda
2. Level 2: Ishvara (God)
3. Level 3: The Mind
4. Level 4: Cosmic Waveforms   

Let us discuss these levels and show the interconnection between them.

Level 1: SatChitAnanda

This is our innermost core. It is our REAL SELF. There is nothing behind this. It is the starting point of everything in the universe. It is the source of everything. It is the substratum of all objects—living and non-living. What is the easiest way to understand SatChitAnanda? As we have discussed in many essays in my book, Science Meets Vedanta, the easiest way to understand our innermost core is that it is like a bulb shining Awareness. We know the sun shines light outside and an electric bulb shines light in our homes. In the same way, SatChitAnanda shines or radiates Awareness. It does nothing else except shine Awareness.

So, what is Awareness? Are you aware of reading this essay? Are you aware of your surroundings? You must be. That is the Awareness we are talking about. It is that simple. A proper understanding of Awareness is most important and critical. If you understand Awareness and the powers therein, everything else becomes easy. We have discussed this subject in many different essays; here I will highlight some of the key ideas.

Awareness is made up of three elements: Subject, Object, and Intelligence. Awareness has three powers built in: Power of the Knower, Power of the Known, and Power of Knowing. If any one of them is missing, there will be no Awareness.

• There must be a subject, who is aware of the experience. This Subject is the knower part of Awareness.
• There must be an object, which must be experienced. This Object is the known part of Awareness.
• There must be Intelligence, by which the Subject gets to know the Object. This is the knowing part of Awareness.

Awareness = Subject + Object + Intelligence

Power of Awareness = Power of Knower + Power of Known + Power of Knowing

It must be understood that Subject, Object, Intelligence, and the three powers are not something outside in the world—they are within Awareness and make up Awareness. Just like water (H₂O) is made up of two molecules of hydrogen and one molecule of oxygen, in the same way Awareness is made up of the three powers of Awareness. Wherever there is Awareness, there must be Subject, Object, and Intelligence with all the three powers. Right now, you are aware of reading this essay, therefore Subject, Object, and Intelligence are present within your awareness of this essay. There is a Subject who is the reader. This essay is the Object. Intelligence allows the reader to understand the essay. Whenever you are aware, the following powers are operational:

1. Power of the Knower: this power allows Awareness to perceive the object. It can be the seer, listener, taster, feeler, and/or smeller.
2. Power of the Known: this power manipulates Awareness to become any (really any) object.
3. Power of Knowing: this intelligence or power decodes what each object is. All possible Knowledge is present. Nothing is missing.
4. Power of Infinite Energy: Awareness is the source of infinite energy.
5. Power to Create Time: Awareness is the source of Time.

A detailed discussion of these powers is in my book, Science Meets Vedanta.

We have just seen that the bulb of Awareness is within each of us and that it radiates Awareness, which includes the awesome powers mentioned earlier. In a nutshell, SatChitAnanda is nothing but Awareness. Your REAL SELF is this Awareness. By understanding the awesome powers of Awareness, you will discover that everything depends on this Awareness.

Level 2: Ishvara (God)

If you properly understand SatChitAnanda, you will discover that you are the Subject, you are all the Objects around you, and all the Intelligence/Knowledge. That is your REAL SELF—it is the Subject, Objects, and Intelligence. What do we really feel? We feel we are only the Subject; we are the Observer. We never feel that we are also the Objects. The Objects feel they are external to us. This happens because of our Ignorance. We have forgotten our REAL SELF. We have forgotten that we are Awareness. All objects are made up of Awareness alone—nothing else. Since we have forgotten this fact, Ignorance pops up and covers our REAL SELF. This Ignorance plays a powerful role in creating everything around us, including Ishvara.

If you think about it, there are only two things in this universe: SatChitAnanda and Ignorance. SatChitAnanda’s only job is shining Awareness, and everything around us is made up of Ignorance. There is a fully functioning world made up of Ignorance. Our soul (atma) is part of this Ignorance. Every living being has a soul and they are all part of this Ignorance.

So, how was Ishvara created? When the bulb of Awareness shines on each soul (atma), the Awareness is reflected in each soul to create a Reflected Awareness. This Reflected Awareness within our soul (atma) is Ishvara. How should we understand this? The classic example given in Vedanta is that there are many (even unlimited) buckets of water, and the sun is shining on them. What happens? You will see the reflected sun in each bucket. You now have the original sun, and you have the reflected sun in each bucket. The reflected sun in each bucket is full and complete; you never see half a sun in any bucket.

This is exactly what is happening. You have the original bulb of Awareness, and you have the Reflected Awareness in each soul. The Bulb of Awareness is outside our soul while the Reflected Awareness is within each soul. Yes, this Reflected Awareness is Ishvara and it is within our soul. It does seem that the source of Ishvara is our Ignorance. If there was no Ignorance, there would be no Ishvara—only SatChitAnanda. However, it must be understood that Ishvara remains pure and complete; it can never be tainted by Ignorance. Reflected Awareness has all the powers of Awareness. Nothing is lost. Each soul has all the powers of Awareness. 

SatChitAnanda vs. Ishvara: SatChitAnanda is the original bulb of Awareness, and Ishvara is the Reflected Awareness. So, what is the difference?

1. SatChitAnanda is non-dual. This means that Subject = Object = Intelligence. SatChitAnanda is a part-less, homogenous unit simply radiating Awareness. Ignorance creates duality. This means that the Subject and Object are separated. The Subject within you and the Objects “out there.” Ishvara works in the world of duality.
2. The powers of Awareness mentioned earlier remain dormant within SatChitAnanda. It does nothing other than radiate Awareness. Because of the duality, all the powers of Awareness mentioned earlier become active within Ishvara. Power of the Knower, Power of the Known, and Power of Knowing become active, and Ishvara wields these powers to create, manage, and control this universe. Infinite energy and time also become operational within Ishvara. All these powers are available in each soul. You have these powers, I have these powers, and every living soul has these powers within them. It is worth contemplating the powers we have within our inner core.  

SatChitAnanda is the dormant version of Awareness while Ishvara is the active version of Awareness. Once again, a proper understanding of Awareness becomes critical. The more you understand and appreciate the powers within Awareness, the closer you can get to Ishvara and SatChitAnanda. What is amazing is that all this is within our inner core. Why look outside when everything is within us?  

Level 3: The Mind

Level 1 is SatChitAnanda, Level 2 is Ishvara, and Level 3 is the Mind. Level 1 is the most remote and subtle. Level 2 is relatively less remote, and Level 3 is the least remote. We know our Mind the best compared to the other levels. Ishvara is the direct source for the Mind. Reflected Awareness creates the Mind. We all know we have a Mind. The question is, how is the Mind created and what is its basic structure?

We just saw that all the powers of Awareness, which are dormant within SatChitAnanda,  became active and operational within Ishvara. This Reflected Awareness with all its powers is the source of the Mind. We mentioned earlier that the soul is made up of Ignorance. This Ignorance interacts with Reflected Awareness. The three powers of Awareness are absorbed by Ignorance to become three different components of the Mind. The degree of absorption would depend upon the Ignorance level of the soul. The greater the Ignorance, the less the absorption of the powers. The purer the soul, the more the absorption of the powers. This means that each Mind has a different absorption level of these powers. Vedanta teaches us that the Mind has the following three parts:

Sakshi (Observer)—The Home of the Subject
Power of the Knower is the driving force within Sakshi. Power of the Knower manipulates Awareness so that Sakshi plays different roles. Sakshi is a seer when watching a tree. It is a listener when listening to music. It is a thinker when thinking, and so on and so forth.

Manas—The Home of the Object
Power of the Known resides within Manas. This power manipulates Awareness to become any object. When the input signal coming from the five senses encounters Awareness, Power of the Known manipulates Awareness to become that object. Essentially, all the objects you see “out there” are made up of Awareness. It may be difficult to grasp, but it is the only truth. If there was no Awareness, none of the objects could exist. Awareness is essential for the existence of any object. 

Buddhi—The Home of Intelligence or Knowledge
Power of Knowing is the Intelligence part of Awareness. All possible knowledge and intelligence are available within Awareness. Power of Knowing extracts this knowledge from Awareness. To give some examples—how does one see a tree? The power of seeing (a power within Power of Knowing) decodes the incoming signal of the tree and adds intelligence so that one can see the tree. How does one listen to music? It is because of the power of listening, which is part of Power of Knowing. This listening power decodes the incoming music signal and adds intelligence to the input signal. In this way, you become aware of the music.

Buddhi has this unlimited knowledge and intelligence available within the Mind. Unfortunately, we do not feel this. Why? Our Ignorance is limiting the usage of this amazing power which is within our minds. Remove this Ignorance and purify the Mind, and this gift from Ishvara will come to the forefront.

The Mind is a powerful gift from Ishvara. All the amazing powers are within the Mind.

Level 4: Cosmic Waveforms

There is a fully functioning universe made up of waveforms or vrittis within the mind. Yes, it is true. As mentioned earlier, there are only two things in the universe: Awareness and Ignorance. This Ignorance is covering Awareness. This Ignorance is the source of all the object forms (living and nonliving). Every object has a waveform—right from an atom to the largest galaxies. The cosmic waveform is the total of all the possible object waveforms and is present in the cosmic mind. A sub-section of the cosmic waveform passes through the five senses into the individual mind. When these waveforms enter the presence of Awareness, magic happens! In the presence of the powers of Awareness, these waveforms become highly intelligent. In a way, they become Artificial Intelligence (AI). They are self-learning, adaptive, and self-sufficient. None of the man-made AI tools can compare with the intelligence of these waveforms. Our mind creates the best possible AI software code.

It may seem strange, but the ego is also a waveform, just like any object waveform. The ego is just a thought. Only the REAL SELF is real; everything else is present as a waveform. The ego waveform continuously interacts with these intelligent object waveforms, and so do other object waveforms with each other. There is a fully functioning universe made up of waveforms. All the action happens in the internal world first, in the mind alone. What you see in the physical world is the gross version of what is happening in the mind. You can call the external world the gross Mind, as it reflects what is happening in the subtle Mind. This idea of an internal functioning universe may seem strange. I have discussed this topic in detail in many essays, available in my book, Science Meets Vedanta.

Conclusion

The underlying theme of this essay is that Awareness is the substratum of everything in the universe. Awareness is the source of SatChitAnanda, Ishvara, the Mind, and all objects. Understand the powers of Awareness and get closer to Ishvara. Live in the world of Awareness and reach SatChitAnanda.