We look into the expositions on awareness from ancient India based on spiritual points of view. The idea is to deepen our understanding of the way consciousness functions so that we can look at life from expansive perspectives. That would take one away from clinging to belief systems for personal salvation and the like. In Sanatana Dharma, the ancient Indian spiritual development, a lot of attention was given to the matter of awareness and universal consciousness. It dealt with the evolution of consciousness on this planet, characterized by expanding awareness. Three levels of awareness were recognized: Dvaita, Visishtadvaita and Advaita. These Sanskrit words are translated respectively as Dualism, Qualified Non-dualism and Non-dualism. They are explained below.
Dualism is the state of awareness in which the ‘I’ is felt as separate from everything else. Thus, there is the ‘I here, God there’ attitude. Division as the experiencer and the experienced, the achiever and the achieved etc are endemic to this awareness. Suffering in the form of grief, fear, anger and the like are inevitable as long as the dualistic awareness governs the psychology.
The qualified non-dualism is an intermediate state between dualism and non-dualism. This marks a more evolved state than the dualistic awareness. The actuality of non-dualism is recognized here as the ultimate truth but the awareness is still not sufficiently advanced to be in that state. The level of awareness here moves people to be satwic – the Sanskrit word for kind and righteous conduct.
Non-dualistic awareness is the state of consciousness in which the individual consciousness merges with the universal consciousness and so evolution reaches its culmination. The false impression of being a separate entity is washed away forever. That is the state of enlightenment attributed to the Buddha and Buddha-like people.
An interesting issue here is that people who go through a NDE give expression to the state of mind characterized by the qualified non-dual state. That is, they feel they are one with Divinity but at the same time sense the fact of them being separate. The episode of Evelyn vH (nderf.org) is a case in point: “While out of my body I felt free; as though I had no boundaries. It seemed that I was part of everything and everything was part of me; as though we melted together and were one but at the same time I was still a separate entity.” Victor Solow explains in his NDE (Reader’s Digest, October 1974) that during his experience there was the indescribable stillness and quiet in which the ‘I’ was part of a harmonious whole.
How do all these help us in our lives? First of all, we see corroboration of the ancient scriptural expositions in the messages of NDE. Many of those who go through the NDE have never been exposed to the explanations of Sanatana Dharma. Thus, the correlation vindicates the truth behind the awareness levels explained in the ancient scriptures. The understanding of the evolution of awareness in human beings makes us treat people with respect because all are evolving and taking part in the vast scheme of things. We take help from those who have gone ahead of us and assist those who are behind us. The deeper our awareness, the more wholesome our lives become. We understand our life’s responsibility and cooperate with it.
The website http://spirituality.yolasite.com deals with associated matters.