Question:

Namaste Ektaji,
What is the correct understanding of these different statements?

In I AM THAT Session 54 – Chapter 19: https://www.gnyanasangha.com/s/courses/677e29b443ab4728b806b958/take
The primordial awareness, which imparts the power of knowing, cannot know. The witness consciousness is the first and last to know.

In I AM THAT Session 57- Chapter 20: https://www.gnyanasangha.com/s/courses/677e43ec30ba170ff3f63a4f/take
The primordial awareness is the knower.

Answer:

In I AM THAT session 54 – Chapter 19, Maharaj is explaining that that which imparts the power cannot itself use the power. The eye cannot see in the absence of sunlight. The Sun imparts light, which propels the eye to see. But the Sun itself does not possess the function of seeing. 

Similarly, the Primordial Awareness or Brahman Consciousness projects that aspect of itself that wants to inquire and find itself – The Witness Consciousness projected by the Primordial Awareness has the power of Knowing. But the Primordial Awareness itself does not possess the function of knowing. 

The process of knowing requires a duality – the Knower and the Known.

The first projection of the Primordial Awareness is the Witness Consciousness. The Witness Consciousness knows all subsequent projections like the Dreamer in the Dreamworld and the Waker in the Waking world. The Witness is the first to know on the way out from the Deep Sleep to the Dream to the Waking.

Similarly, on the journey from Waking to Dream to Deep Sleep, the Waker in the Waking world disappears first, and this is known by the Witness Consciousness. The Dreamer in the Dreamworld disappears next, which is known by the Witness Consciousness. Finally, the Deep Sleeper in the Deep Sleep Void is the last known of the Witness Consciousness.

Hence, the Witness Consciousness is the first and the last to know. This can be directly experienced by the earnest spiritualist with the aid of Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana or the Deconditioning wisdom of Waking, Dream, Sleep – https://tinyurl.com/SNGSseries

In I AM THAT session 57 – Chapter 20, the last sentence is – Once all knowers are known, ALL is known. This refers to the Primordial Awareness as the knower, but here the knowing referred to is not one of duality; it is the knowing beyond the mind. Some sages describe it as a flash of knowledge. Some portray the ultimate knowing as the knowing light of consciousness, which has the brilliance of a thousand suns. That ultimate power itself cannot be known.

Session 57 refers to that ultimate power as the ultimate Knower. Let’s understand the Ultimate Knower in depth:

The witness consciousness knows with the help of the borrowed reflection of the ultimate power by which all is known. The ultimate source is that which is beyond knowing and not knowing. When the ultimate source is realized, all the known objects as well as all the lower-level knowers lose their meaning, their charm, their attraction, like:
– the eyes that see,
– the ears that hear,
– the nose that smells,
– the tongue that tastes,
– the skin that touches.
– the intellect that knows the 5 senses and the 5 sense objects,
– the witness of the entire waking state.
– the witness of the dream state,
– the witness of the deep sleep state

When the entire range of knowers from the Waker to the Witness seems futile, Turiya too loses its charm.

Thus, one reaches a point where one knows all the knowers. Once all knowers are known, ALL is known. How? 

– The somebody-ness collapses.
– The idea of something-ness breaks down.
– The idea of separateness crumbles.
– The idea of knower, knowing, and the known disintegrate.

Thus, Duality fades away. Only the Unknown remains! It is what it always was, it is recognized on account of the collapse of all Knower-Known combinations. All Knower-Known combinations were a projection meant to reach the ‘Supreme, the Unknown’.

Attempt to see this by the way of direct experience, not intellectual comprehension. Begin your Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana – Deconditioning by the wisdom of Waking, Dreaming, Sleeping today! – https://tinyurl.com/SNGSseries

Happy Samadhi!

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