Agamya – Inaccessible through words!
Question:
I wanted to also share that I really found the question and answers helpful after the explorations yesterday where Ektaji was speaking with Shailaja. That mind is only limited to the perception of five senses and the void is beyond and that intellect can never put the void into words. Things like where the memory is saved in consciousness – we can not know. All we know is that thoughts just come and go. Also when Ektaji mentioned that enlightenment is coming to knowing in silence that there are no more questions and answers as it is beyond the intellect. It is also the recognition that we will never know the mystery completely but we can BE it. Is my understanding correct Ektaji?
Answer:
Yes, my dear. Your points are correct.
You are the space in which the mind arises, you are that void. The void is beyond the mind. The intellect cannot go there. We cannot know what lies beyond because the ‘knowing capacity of the mind is limited to the mind’.
Let’s do an experiment. take a large bowl. Imagine that this large bowl is the Consciousness. Now take a tiny bowl and put it inside the large bowl. Imagine that this tiny bowl is the mind. Now put a spoonful of water in the tiny bowl. Can this water in the tiny bowl go beyond the tiny bowl to the large bowl? Do you see that this tiny bowl has a limitation? Do you see that there is a space beyond the tiny bowl which the water in the tiny bowl cannot fathom?
Similarly, the mind has a limitation, it cannot fathom that which is beyond even though the mind is in the same Consciousness, it cannot fathom what is beyond its limited borders. This means that the mind cannot know Consciousness.
Now, let’s examine who wants to know?
It is obviously the one that does not know and has developed the feverishness to know.
Consciousness means Knowingness means Awareness. Is it possible that the Awareness/Consciousness does not know and wants to know?
Not possible. Consciousness/Knowingness/Awareness simply IS. It never has any restless desires, it never wants, it never ‘not wants’, it just IS! If you examine carefully, it is the mind that has desires. It is the mind that wants to know.
Secondly, the craving/aversion seeds/ seeds of projection are definitely not stored at the body/mind level otherwise we would see how we projected a tiger chasing us in the dream. This means that the seeds of memory are definitely beyond the mind level.
Can the mind go beyond the mind?
It is the mind that doesn’t know and wants to know but cannot know as it cannot go beyond itself. It comes to a dead-end. That is where ‘Surrender’ happens. And the journey to the Unknown begins. But the only pre-requisite is that you agree to be guided by the unknown void within. The Unknown does reveal a lot but the mind can never reach there. That is the reason why Advaita has defined Aparoksha [Direct experiential wisdom] as being totally different from Pratyaksha [Knowledge obtained through Senses] and Paroksha [Inferential Knowledge].
It can only be directly experienced [Aparoksh Gnyana] but the mind cannot describe it. That is why you read in the scriptures that it is indescribable.
Explore – Indescribable does not mean that the mystery cannot be known. Indescribable means Awareness can ONLY know itself-the-Awareness, but the mind cannot get there so it is Agamya [inaccessible through words / indescribable].
I hope it’s clear that you go there only through intuition, not words. If you have had an intuitive glimpse of the void beyond and would like to share some insights with the Sangha, please feel free to share below. Maybe your effort to point towards the indescribable will benefit another sincere spiritual seeker to look in that direction. Happy Sangha sharing!
#AtmaNirvriti #AtmanandaKrishnaMenon #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-duality #Nisargadatta Maharaj
4 Comments
Submit a Comment
Have a Spiritual Question? Ask Ekta
🙏
Thank you Ektaji for such a detailed knowledge. The experiment with the small bowl in the big bowl really helped understand.
Great thought, dear Ekta.
What about all the prophets who wanted to show us the Unknown? Do you agree that whatever has been said in the different divine books are the manifestation of the indescribable Void? If the Consciousness/Knowingness/Awareness just IS and cannot be described in words – i.e. the only means of our intellect beside mathematics- then it could be only experienced by each one himself/herself. The very moment he or she tries to express IT then they are prone to fail or just deliver a bad copy of what they have experienced or seen or whatever you would call the way that leads to experience IT = THE VOID. We can only be IT or live the Mysterious. Whoever has reached this “status” cannot be the same as before. He or she has been touched by the Infinity/Void/Unknowable/Unknown which are all just mere names and a desperate struggle of the mind/intellect/memory to describe and understand something that is neither describable nor understandable!
To sum up my thought: Whoever has experienced IT just IS. We have no choice than BEING in Consciousness/Awareness/Knowingness and walk among others of our society who might not have had the same experience. Moreover, we have no choice either to walk amidst people and risk the fact that they might not understand our way of being and shun us (at least) or maybe treat us as a threat to (their understanding of) peace (at worst).
Please guide. Namaste.
Dear Farsin,
It is indescribable in words but words can at least point in the correct direction so the earnestness of the sincere seeker can get him there intuitively. That is why Earnestness is the primary prerequisite for a true seeker. If he is pretending to be earnest, he cannot get to his own true self. It is as simple as that.
Recognizing that you are Consciousness/Awareness/VOID and not the ‘assumed personality’ is an extremely easy task. The hard part for seekers is letting go of their past belief of being the ‘person’. They hold on to it for dear life. The longer they hold on to past conditioning, the longer they suffer the disease of ‘belief of being the person’.
One who recognizes his true nature of the VOID sees himself as an empty shell and other body-minds as empty shells. Nothing bothers him longer than a line drawn on water lasts. He becomes free of suffering completely because his old conditioning of ‘I am the person’ has completely shattered away. He sees pain happening to the empty shell [body-mind] as it used to happen before but there is no suffering, there is no misery. What is, is!
Did I answer your question dear? If not, please feel free to send your follow-up questions to – questions4ekta@gmail.com.