Let's do a self-exploration meditation on how the understanding of the person has evolved through the three levels of Srishti-Drishti Vada,
Drishti-Srishti Vada and Ajat Vada.
Let's close our eyes and let's sit comfortably.
Look back at your own understanding of the person.
A beginner on the path assumes that he is the physical body.
He assumes that the creation is always there and he is born in an already existing creation.
He assumes that the creation is always there and he wakes up every morning in an already existing creation.
This level is called Srishti-Drishti Vada.
Srishti-Drishti Vada means the Srishti is always there and Drishti is born later.
Creation precedes consciousness.
Srishti-Drishti Vada.
Srishti means creation,
Drishti means consciousness.
There is a subtle hidden assumption that the person is dependent on the existence of a world in which the person is born.
But this is not true.
The person is not dependent on the existence of the world.
The spiritual seeker who is walking the path of Advaita is shown right in the beginning that he is not the body-mind person.
He is the witness of the body-mind.
As the journey proceeds,
He is shown that there are moments when he is not conscious of the physical body and the mind.
In those moments he is still there.
But the person and the world both are not.
When the seeker gets this,
He usually says that in those gaps he had no memory of the person and the world.
It is pointed out to him that he was still there.
This brings about a clearer understanding that the so-called person is the body-mind and he is separate from this body-mind.
From this stand of the witness of the body-mind,
He recognizes that the body-mind is what is called the person.
And this body-mind person is simply a memory.
There are moments when there is the memory of the body-mind person and then there are gaps in these moments when there is no memory of the body-mind person nor of its world.
In his own experience,
He sees that the world is simply memory.
The person is simply memory.
To help this seeker rise higher,
He is shown that the world that is memory,
The person that is memory are both interdependent.
That which is dependent cannot be real.
Therefore,
That which he considered as himself,
The body-mind personality is not real because the real is always independent.
It stands by itself.
That which is independently observing all the dependents,
That is the real.
That which is there when the dependents go missing,
That is real.
Thus,
He steps into the understanding of Advaita Level 2,
Drishti Srishti Vada.
Consciousness precedes creation.
He recognizes in his own direct experience that I am there even when I am not conscious of the memory of the person or the memory of the world.
That means the person and the world are both completely different from I.
When he starts seeing this truth that I am different from the person plus world,
He also sees clearly that the person plus world appear and disappear in him.
And what do they appear and disappear into?
Into no-things awareness.
Thus,
He comes to the recognition that I precede the memory of the world.
I precede the memory of the person.
Drishti Srishti Vada.
Consciousness precedes creation.
He further contemplates on his own.
When the person plus world appear in me,
The bed of awareness,
I say that I have the memory of the person plus world.
When the person plus world disappear in me,
The bed of awareness,
I say that I have lost the memory of the person plus world.
But I am truly in my own nature in that gap when there is no memory of person and no memory of the world.
Aha!
I am that bed of awareness that projects the idea of a person plus world.
As his journey continues,
He is shown that the projection and the projector are not two.
They are one and the same.
He is encouraged to dive into his dreams and recognize that the tiger in his dreams is his own projection even though he would never want to project a tiger.
Similarly,
The person plus world is his own projection even though he would not like to project it that way.
When the spiritual seeker contemplates further,
He recognizes,
I am the bed of awareness that is just like the bed of the ocean.
The ocean projects waves even though its true nature is of the deep,
Quiet water.
Similarly,
I,
The bed of awareness,
Project the wave-like dream character plus dream world in the dream state.
And I,
The bed of awareness,
Project the wave-like person plus waking world in the waking state.
Just like the wave and the ocean,
Both are simply water.
Similarly,
The person,
The world and awareness are all simply pure consciousness.
Finally,
The ajatma,
The recognition,
Is revealed to him that there is no projection happening really.
It is all one,
Like the waves are not different from the ocean.
All is simply water.
The hero and the heroine are not different from the background screen of light.
All is simply light.
The person plus the world are not different from the background of awareness.
All is pure consciousness.
All is pure consciousness.
There is no world.
There is no person.
They were never born.
Ajatma.
Never born.
Thus,
He completes his journey to full self-realization,
Full enlightenment.
The journey consisted of two parts.
Brahman Satyam and Jagat Mithya.
Brahman Satyam means the only truth is Brahman.
Jagat Mithya means the world and the person are an illusion.
Only when one completes both the parts,
Then it is termed as full self-realization,
Complete enlightenment.
Let's summarize the entire journey in short.
1.
Srishti Drishti Vada,
Creation precedes consciousness,
Is merely a stepping stone.
It is meant to be left behind.
Because at this level,
One assumes that the world is first,
Therefore I am.
This belief must be shunned.
When it is completely dropped,
One moves to the second level,
Drishti Srishti Vada.
Consciousness precedes creation.
Here one sees,
Because I am first,
There is a world.
The projection becomes very clear.
I am required for the projection of the world to happen.
But this also is a stepping stone and must soon be discarded.
Then only does one arrive at Ajat Vada.
The creation is unborn.
Here one clearly sees the truth.
There is no person,
Nor a world.
All is consciousness.
That culminates the search.
The only way one can see this clearly is by recognizing again and again that I,
The consciousness,
Know the waking world and the waking personality in the waking world.
I,
The consciousness,
Know the dream personality in the dream world.
And I,
The consciousness,
Know the absence of both the waking personality in the waking world and the dream personality in the dream world.
This absence,
This darkness,
This nothingness that is termed as deep sleep is my true nature.
That is the same as the gaps that happen during the waking state.
This is the entire process of Swapna Nidra Jnana,
Where the recognition becomes very clear that I,
The consciousness,
Am permanent.
There is only consciousness.
Just like the wave that arises out of water and dissolves back into the water is nothing but water,
Similarly,
The waking state is nothing but consciousness.
The dream state is nothing but consciousness.
And the deep sleep state is the absence of the waking and the dream states.
It is pure consciousness and nothing else.
I am that pure consciousness.
That pure consciousness which is devoid of an I.
I am not I.
