International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Vol. 1 Issue 10, Oct 2016. www.ijasrm.com

ISSN 2455-6378

Vedanta-- The Science Of Consciousness: Sree Narayana ’s Epistemological Perspective

Dr. S. Omana1

1 Former H.O.D. of Philosophy, University College, , , , Asia

Abstract Sree Narayana Guru is one of the greatest Sree Narayana Guru re-presents Vedanta as a mystical of the modern world, who Science of Consciousness or Pure Epistemology in lived in India from 1856 to 1928 AD. Basically the his work Arivu, conceiving Consciousness as the one Guru was an Advaita Vedantin, a follower of Sree all underlying Reality that assumes the form of all Sankara. Re-introducing the same wisdom in the the worlds both as mental and physical. The Guru modern Age of Science, giving full recognition to the has proved that the essence of individual and scientific mindset of the days in which he lived, was external world is Consciousness. Consciousness what Narayana Guru did. shines forth inwardly as the subjective experience Narayana Guru’s philosophy includes and outwardly as the objective experience. The one Metaphysics, Epistemology, Logic, Ethics, Religion, consciousness and its manifest forms do not exist Social speculations etc., and therefore it is all one without the other, this oneness of oneself, the comprehensive; but first and foremost the Guru is an world and the Consciousness cannot be intellectually epistemologist. In his philosophical works the Guru conceived but to be intuitively experienced. Guru’s always uses the terms Atma, Arivu, Cit and epistemology provides ample scope for the problems Consciousness rather than to denote the of Consciousness such as the relation between Ultimate Reality. This peculiarity itself shows that subject and object, mind and matter, the origin of life the primary concern of the Guru is epistemic. from matter or Consciousness etc., Awareness of The Guru in his Philosophical works gives Guru’s unitive vision helps one to solve the problems us an overall epistemology, and a unifying scheme of of life and ensures enduring peace in life. correlation by which all schools of thought, both Keywords: Consciousness, Subject, Object, Manifestation, Interiorized Perception Eastern and Western, can be assigned their legitimate place in the general scheme of human 1 1. Introduction understanding. Epistemology is the philosophical study that Sree Narayana Guru re-presents Vedanta as a investigates the origin, structure, methods and Science of Consciousness or Pure Epistemology in validity of knowledge. Each school of thought has its terms easily understandable to the mindset of a own epistemological doctrine. modern man, in one of his works in entitled Arivu or Epistemology of Gnosis, conceiving Knowledge or consciousness alone is the Consciousness as the one all underlying reality that theme Vedanta deals with. Vedanta is itself thus assumes the form of all the worlds both as mental epistemology in its broadest sense. Hence there is no and physical. This analysis of Consciousness relevance of a separate section for it in Vedanta. provides an answer to the challenging problems of The revision of the Guru on Vedanta and consciousness posed by the modern cognitive his neutrality between skepticism and belief or as scientists and philosophers investigating the between a posteriori and apriori gives to it a philosophy of mind as well as all other problems of normative scientific status. It at once puts his philosophy and life. Hence the Guru’s epistemology metaphysical speculations on par with that of has ample relevance which this study intends to bring out. 1 , The philosophy of a Guru, Narayana , 35, (1986). 64

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Vol. 1 Issue 10, Oct 2016. www.ijasrm.com

ISSN 2455-6378

physics. A careful scrutiny of his epistemology will In verse 59 of the same work the Guru says: reveal the neutral – normative nature of the position without knowledge I do not exist; that the Guru maintains in his attitude which is without me there is no knowledge; light alone is. intended to be fully universal and scientific, neither thus, both knowledge and knower, when taking the side of the believer nor of the skeptic, the contemplated, orthodox or the heterodox of any traditional context of any time or any part of the world. It is here the are of one substance; there can be no doubt. Guru’s epistemology excels in being scientific. In Verse 50 of the Ātmopadesa Satakam Guru’s work ‘Arivu’ is an in-depth the Guru reveals that all is not other than cit, pure philosophical examination of consciousness which Unconditioned Consciousness. seems to have not been undertaken till now either in In Verse 20 of the same work, the Guru the East or West except for the few studies of the says the world has no other reality. Western psychologists and a few studies on the Guru, in verses 10 and 11 of Ātmopadesa philosophy of mind by Western thinkers. Satakam, presents an experimental situation, before In his work Arivu the Guru says there is us which in precise, is as follows: only one Arivu or knowledge and there is nothing to Two men are sitting in the dark. One asks, fall outside its periphery. Knowledge is the only “who is there?” to which he receives the reply,” It is copying stone of existence. All realistic and finite I, who are you”? He too answers “It is I”.2 knowledge is within the ambit of the one and infinite The question then is to know the real nature knowledge. Here arise questions like: What is the and substance of the ‘I’ common to both – In the essential content of this Consciousness which is dark, unaware of anything external each is aware of always one and changeless and appears to be his own self-existence, his ‘I’. constantly changing? How does the same knowledge Narayana Guru proves also how it is one function as the subject, object and knowledge? All Consciousness alone that unfolds itself as everything, these problems are examined by the Guru in an particularly in his Advaita Dīpika. original way. The Guru adapts the analytical method of The questions are answered in a science in the present verse. dialectically conceived way rather than resorting to Someone, intending to know the real logical reasoning. That means the basic stand that content in a piece of cloth, an object that forms a part Atma or Brahman, which is unconditioned of the world, subjects it to analysis. The piece of cloth, in the first step, gets transformed into yarn, the Consciousness in essence, is the one all underlying former disappearing in the latter. Analysed further, Reality and is made a firm basis for solution to all the yarn turns out to be cotton fibres, in content; problems. If the one Reality forms one pole of the again the former disappears in the latter. Fibres are dialectical situation, at the other pole is placed each further analysed. They, according to the modern of the problem and solution to them as arrived at by scientific view, become transformed into molecules relating each to the one Reality as its manifestation. containing atoms of elements like carbon and oxygen. These atoms, analysed further, are found to The essential oneness of consciousness be different energy particles in essence, all of them could be seen emphasised in the Upanishads. being various forms in which one energy-reality Narayana Guru, in his Vedanta ( 3) appears. Its existence is undeniable because we know defines consciousness as tat Jyotih:-- that that it exists. That means, what is undeniably real is effulgence.1 knowledge or consciousness alone. It is In verse 27 of his Atmopadesa Satakam, Consciousness, in its functional states, that assumes Guru gives a precise and scientific definition of Atma the form of energy, atoms, molecules, fibre, yarn, or Consciousness, “Sitting in the dark, that which cloth and even the visible world of which the cloth is a part, all disappearing in the reality of knows itself is Atma’’ (Nitya, Neither This Nor That 3 But Aum.). Consciousness. In verse 99 of Guru’s Atmopadesa Satakam, Guru says: knowledge and I (consciousness) -- both 2 Muni Narayana Prasad, Guru, The Philosophy of are one to him for whom the veil is removed; to Narayana Guru, D.K.Print World, 31,(2003). another there is doubt.

3 Muni Narayana Prasad, The Shorter Philosophical 1 Muni Narayana Prasad, Guru, Commentary on poems of Narayana Guru,D. K. Print World, 82, Vedanta Sutras, D.K.Print World, 35, (1997). (2010).

65

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Vol. 1 Issue 10, Oct 2016. www.ijasrm.com

ISSN 2455-6378

Cit was thus ascertained as the all both through the neutral point of which he names as underlying sat. The Guru states in Darsanamala anya-sama. Chapter II verse 8 that this Cit itself is what The sama and anya kinds of knowledge manifests phenomenally as everything, and it does also, each has a samanya side and a visesha side. not remain without manifesting. How Consciousness manifests itself as ‘the This idea is given in Bhagavad Gita chapter known’ – the objective world is examined by the II.6 Guru in detail in chapter V entitled Bhana Darsanam Resorting to the logical and traditional of his Darśanamāla. methods Guru has proved that the reality of individual and external world is Consciousness. Consciousness is effulgence in essence. It shines forth. Any specifiable aspect of the shining Narayana Guru has tackled all the processes incessantly happening in cit is known as epistemological problems. bhāna. On the one side it shines forth inwardly as the subjective experience that we have examined in 2. Origin of knowledge detail, on the other hand it shines forth outwardly as the objective experience - the world of the known. Everything originates from the one cit or Consciousness and hence the origin of any specific The bhāna of cit has two facets knowledge also has to be the same Cit. samanyabhāna (generic shining forth) and Visesha- bhāna (specific shining forth). A forest seen as a According to the Guru, in every event of whole is generic or universal, whereas each tree in it, knowing, there is the coming together of two sides; seen separately is specific or particular. Also, every the subject and the object. The subject Cit becomes bhāna depends on something, yet another manifest manifested in a subtle form. In the case of an object, form of the same cit. This factor is called the same cit becomes manifest with a gross form. bhānasraya (that on which bhāna depends). The subject and object thus are nothing but one cit shining forth in two different forms. Cit never remains functionless because of Four kinds of bhāna are differentiated. the Karma inherent in it. This Karma – urge is there 1. Sthula - bhāna, shining forth of cit in every apparent form that emerges in the Cit as as gross objective experience. well; both subject and object have it. This urge 2. Sukshma bhāna – shining forth of impels these two to get into contact with each other cit as subtle objective experience. in order that they could forgo their apparent differences and realize their essential oneness. This 3. Karana bhāna – shining forth of cit realization of the essential oneness of subject and as causal objective experience. object is what we usually experience as specific 4. Turiya-bhāna - shining forth of cit as knowledge. But we remain ignorant of it, just the fourth state of mystical experience because of avidya.

3. The structure of knowledge The Guru in his Darsanamala chapter Consciousness manifests itself as the knowing function and the known – the objective VI entitled Jnāna Darsanam almost a similar world. The structural pattern in which Consciousness division of knowledge is made as nirupādhika jnāna manifests itself as its knowing function is examined (the unconditioned knowledge) and sōpādhika jnāna by the Guru in verses 36 to 42 of his Atmopadesa (the conditioned knowledge). Knowledge not Satakam. conditioned by subject and object is nirupādhika Infinite is the way in which the knowing jnāna (unconditioned knowledge). Knowledge so function becomes unfolded from the one conditioned is sōpādhika jnāna (conditioned Consciousness. They can be classified into two knowledge). The Guru states parajnāna 'sama' and 'anya'. The knowing function in which (transcendental knowledge) which is the direct one perceives many realities is called anya. The experience of one’s self identity with Brahman, the knowing function in which Reality is perceived as ultimate Reality. one is called sama (the same). After indicating the two kinds of Another scheme of manifestation of knowledge, the Guru says that the goal of the Consciousness into objective and subjective worlds contemplative is not to give primacy to one or the is given by the Guru himself in the last four verses of other of the two rival aspects but to transcend them his work 'Arivu'.

66

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Vol. 1 Issue 10, Oct 2016. www.ijasrm.com

ISSN 2455-6378

Consciousness itself, as it functions manifest aspects of an opposite nature is the only assumes the form- of the known (objective world) method helpful in seeking Brahman and it is called and subjective world. 'The known', thus emerged is yōga-buddhi in Bhagavad Gīta and dialectics in the of two kinds; the knowable and the unknowable. The Western philosophy. knowable becomes Sub-divided into five sense- objects, again because Arivu is functional. The Narayana Guru recommends the seeker of unknowable is not classified for the simple reason knowledge to perform certain Sadhanas in order to that it is not knowable. attain the final goal. One has to perform Tapas. The five kinds of knowable knowns, the one Finally the seeker merges in the ultimate Truth. unknowable known, known hood and knowledge Then, no more duality will be there. Upanishadic knowing these eight together constitute the known- saying is that one who knows Brahman becomes world. Brahman. The same one Arivu on the subjective side 5. Conclusion becomes transformed as five-fold sense knowledge’s, the knowledge that there is From the above understanding of Guru’s unknowable, the knowledge I am the knower and epistemology it is clear that he provides ample scope knowledge of the event of knowing. These too are for the problem of consciousness such as the relation eight and they comprise the subjective world. between subject and object, mind and matter, the origin of life from matter or Consciousness etc. In the final verse, the Guru reminds us, such constituent factors become meaningful only as you In the West Descartes, Kant, Sartre, subject the function of arivu to analysis, otherwise it Husserl, Thomas Nagel, David Chalmers and others remains one undivided whole. tried to solve the problem in their own way. But they could not succeed in solving the problem because Though all these analytical studies help us they were not ready to consider man as a pure being to have a clear understanding, really the one arivu and the essence of the world as Consciousness. and its manifest forms do not exist one without the other. This is yet another new idea contributed by the According to the Guru, both subject and Guru to Vedanta. object are nothing but the one Arivu or Consciousness become manifest in two different 4. Validity of knowledge modes; hence the two are really one in essence. According to Narayana Guru, a certain and It is here that the Guru’s epistemological clear vision of ātma or Consciousness is not the vision finds relevance. Having this holistic vision outcome of any logically tenable means of enables us to perceive all the trials and tribulations of knowledge (pramānās) but is an experiential life as well as the happiness we feel merely as part of illumination. the sport of but one Consciousness. This awareness alone ensures enduring peace in life. The validity of the pramānās – pratyaksha

(perception), anumāna (inference), arthāpatti (presumption), anupalabdhi (non-apprehension) and References upamāna (analogy) – is only in respect of the externally oriented knowledge, where someone sees [1] Dharmaraja, Vedanta Paribhasha, Trans. something else. They never help us to attain self- S.S, Suriya Narayana Sastri, Adayar Library knowledge. The only indirectly helpful pramāna is Series, 130-142, (1942). [2] Muni Narayana Prasad Guru, Commentary sruti (verbal testimony), for it is the words of on Vedanta Sutras, D.K. Printworld, 1-35, instruction the seeker hears or reads from the (1997). authority of a realized person. But words do not [3] Muni Narayana Prasad Guru, The make the seeker enlightened straight away; he will Philosophy of Narayana Guru, D.K. have to ponder over them meditatively to get the Printworld, 25-68, (2003). hidden meanings of the words revealed. [4] Muni Narayana Prasad Guru, The Shorter Hence in the context of the knower knowing Philosophical poems of Narayana Guru, D.K. Printworld, 82, (2010). himself, one’s attention becomes interiorized [5] Nataraja Guru, An Integrated Science of the towards oneself. The effective use of the method Absolute, D.K. Printworld, 200-302, (2001). results in the effacement of the seeker who becomes [6] Nataraja Guru, Life and Teachings of merged in what is sought. Intuitively perceiving the Narayana Guru, Narayana Gurukula, 572- unitive Reality by making use of its own two 585, (1990).

67

International Journal of Advanced Scientific Research and Management, Vol. 1 Issue 10, Oct 2016. www.ijasrm.com

ISSN 2455-6378

[7] Nataraja Guru, The Philosophy of a Guru, Narayana Gurukula, 35, (1986). [8] Nityachaitanyayati Guru, Arivu (Epistemology of Gnosis),Narayana Gurukula, 1-30, (1990). [9] Nityachaitanyayati Guru, Neither This Nor That But Aum, Vikas Publishing House, 73- 87, (1982). [10] Nityachaitanyayati Guru,The Psychology of Darsanamala, Narayana Gurukula, 3,(1987).

68