Mandukya_Upanishad

logical discrimination. This is the condition of vijñāna asdistinguished from mānās, to which alone the animal worldis confined, and from prāna, to which alone the vegetablekingdom is constrained, and from annā, to which alone theinanimate world is restricted. But the vijñāna to which wehave reached at the human level, the fourth degree, we maysay, of the revelation of Reality, is not all. There is a higherstep that we have to take above the human, beyond thevijñāna. That step which is above vijñāna or the humanlevel is the realm of ānanda or divine delight. So, from annāwe come to prāna, from prāna to mānās, from mānās tovijñāna, from vijñāna to ānanda.This ānanda is equivalent to chit and sat –Consciousness and Being. All that was in the lower levelsgets absorbed into this ānanda. Whatever meaning we sawin the inanimate level, in the levels of the plants, animalsand humans, all this meaning is found in the level of Realityas ānanda; and here, existence, consciousness and blissbecome one, while in the lower levels they get separated.There is only existence or ‘sat’ in rocks, no chit and ānanda.Rocks exist, but they do not think; they do not feel; they donot understand; and do not experience joy. But a slowprocess of the revelation of thought-functioning takes placein the higher levels, until it reaches a kind of perfection inthe human consciousness. Here we have sattva mixed upwith rajas and tamas, on account of which we are veryactive; sometimes lethargic, and due to the element ofsattva manifest as a fraction, we feel happy at times, thoughnot always. But happiness at times is of no use, beingundependable.55