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.