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Panchadashi Lesson G0103: Knows Himself

Panchadashi
Module - G
Unit - G01
Lesson G0103: Meaning of the words 'knows himself'
By Raja Subramaniyan

The meaning of the words 'knows himself' in the key statement 'If a person knows himself to be this ONE, desiring what and for whose benefit will he struggle?' can be understood from two different perspectives.

From the perspective of the ignorant person, he knows himself to be caught in the miseries of the world due to his perceived inadequacy.

From the perspective of an enlightened person, he knows himself to be very free since he is not affected by the conditions of the body/mind complex.

The body/mind complex is an inert object without life. Ignorant person assumes that somehow life has evolved into an inert object. However, the enlightened person knows that life is involved into inert object.

Question: How is it possible for the enlightened person to say 'I am ONE' since his body/mind complex has no relationship with ONE. In addition, there is no way ONE can say 'I am ONE' without using the body/mind. Therefore, the word I can mean neither the consciousness nor it can mean the body/mind complex. Thus, it is not possible for anyone to say 'I am ONE'.

Answer: There are three meanings to the word 'I'.

The popular meaning refers to the reflected consciousness bundled with the body/mind complex. This is the literal meaning of the word 'I', which is used by the ignorant people. In this context it is not possible to neither say 'I am ONE' nor people say that because they are ignorant about the existence of the original consciousness.

The other two meanings of the word 'I' are rare which is used by enlightened people.

In the context of worldly transactions like 'I want to eat' etc, the word 'I' refers only the reflected consciousness and the body/mind complex. Nevertheless, he says this with proper understanding that this meaning of 'I' is false and sustained by the original consciousness.

In the context of teaching self-knowledge to others OR for his own Inner Transformation, he says the word 'I' to refer the original consciousness.

Therefore, only in the context of teaching the enlightened can say 'I am ONE'.
Question: It is not possible to say 'I am ONE'. Since the ONE, the original consciousness is the only one without the second it cannot say 'I am ONE'. In addition, the original consciousness does not have the support of body/mind complex to say 'I am ONE'.

The reflected consciousness cannot say 'I am ONE' because it is only an illusion and not the reality. There are many body/mind complexes, which are reflecting the image of the only original consciousness. Therefore, how every reflection could say 'I am ONE'?

Answer: Technically, it is correct that it is not possible to say 'I am ONE'.

Example: A = B. It means A and B are different but their value is same. Since only the values are same, it is not possible to say 'A' and 'B' are the same. It is neither possible nor necessary to say A = A.

There is only one situation in which we could say that two objects are one and the same. Only when one of the objects is real and the other one is an illusion we can say that both are the same.

Example: In a room, one person is sitting by the side of a big mirror. Some passerby might mistake that there are two persons sitting next to each other. In this situation, it can be explained that both are the same.

In order to give such an explanation one person should be real and the other person should be false. Only in the mind of the passerby, there are two persons due to ignorance. To remove this ignorance the person in the room may say 'I am one'.

Similarly, the reflected consciousnesses are many in number. However, when they say 'I am ONE' it should be assumed to refer the only original consciousness.

Example: To continue the previous example, what will be the reaction of the passerby, if he hears the reflection say 'I am one'?

In the case of ONE, it has no necessity to say, "I am ONE". Besides it cannot say, "I am ONE" since it is not associated with any body/mind complex. The reflected consciousness using the mind/body complex can say, "I am ONE" for explaining the truth.
Example: In the movie 'Total Recall', the character on the computer screen will say 'I am you' to the hero.

Since in reality there is only one, the reflection can declare, "I am ONE" because the reflections do not exist without the original.

Statement 3: Thus, 'knows himself' means to know his real self.

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