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.