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Nootan Kumar | The Evolution of Consciousness
something within oneself” 34 , and contrasts this higher level of awareness
with other unconscious or subconscious states of being. For the individual
human, Swami Sri Yukteswar 35 defines consciousness as the power of feeling,
while Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo call it spontaneous knowledge
and truth-awareness. 36 Swami Muktananda 37
further refines the definition of
individual human consciousness by dividing it into four states: waking,
dreaming, deep dreamless sleep and turiya, where the latter is:
…the witness of all the other states, the
integral awareness that links the other three
levels together. This is the pure
consciousness, an intelligent awareness that
can – for example – report your dreams back
to you in the morning when you wake up….if
you can move into that state of witnessconsciousness…you
can be present with God
38
all the time.
It is the fourth level of consciousness as witness that connects
individual consciousness, chitta, to universal consciousness, chit, and
culminates in the experience of sat, the eternal truth of being, and ananda,
everlasting bliss. Universal consciousness is identified by Swami
39
Muktananda as the ultimate witness, as God Her/Himself. Swami Sri
34 Merriam-Webster online dictionary. Web. 08 Dec. 2009.
35 Swami Sri Yukteswar. The holy science.
36 Diwakar, R. R. Mahayogi: Life, sadhana and teachings of Sri Aurobindo. Bombay: Bharatiya
Vidya Bhavan, 1953.
37 Swami Muktananda. Play of consciousness. San Francisco, California: Harper & Row,
Publishers, 1978.
38 Gilbert, Elizabeth. Eat, pray, love: One woman’s search for everything across Italy, India and
Indonesia. New York: Penguin Books, 2006. 196.
39 Swami Muktananda. Play of consciousness.
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