DELIMITATION OF CONSCIOUSNESS

O Nanak! (One's) doubt, fear and the limitations of the three qualities (of Maya)
are dispelled, and like water blending with water,
(he) blends with the Lord (ਇਕ ਰੂਪ ਹੋ ਜਾਂਣਾ). (sggs 578).
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On account of one's material nature — Mayaic life — one's consciousness shrinks. This shrinking of consciousness creates future limitations of the senses, mind and intellect. If the consciousness is allowed to delimit itself, as time goes by, it will shrink and shrink until one becomes unaware of it. According to the Gurbani, the majority of us live in this state of delimited consciousness just as the frog of a well. With consciousness so shrunk, we close the door to our Mool within (Source, Origin, Jot...). If one is desirous of relinking with his Mool, the Gurbani's advice is to reverse the lifestyle.

What really is the limited or shrunken consciousness? How can one know if he is under the control of such limited consciousness? In nutshell, delimited consciousness is thinking of ego-body-senses-mind-world-illusion. In other words, it is the consciousness that has been altered, fragmented, modified or differentiated from its Original State (Mool). A Mayaic mind in control of senses rather than the Mool is a mind of limited consciousness. Such conditioned mind confined to the modes of material nature (time-bound or individualized consciousness) has limited expression as "I, me, mine", which is the same as Haume, false ego-sense or "I-am-ness". The mind so infatuated with corruption and possessed with particularized consciousness exhibits contradictory qualities. In other words, the Self, as conditioned by various contradictory limiting adjuncts, is possessed of likes and dislikes (duality or Doojaa Bhaav). Other terms that are virtually synonymous to the delimited consciousness include desires and fears, lust, anger, greed, emotional attachment, pride, enviousness, stubborn mindedness, foolishness, ignorance (darkness), selfishness, mental blindness, Manmukhtaa, Malla, Durmat, Paravirti, inverted heart-lotus, doubts and related illusoriness, and so on.

As indicated in the Gurbani, self-limitation — the sense of separation from the Cosmic Unity — is thus seen everywhere in "fools" which is conducive to repeated suffering. It exists in the minds devoid of the Divine Knowledge (Aatam Giaan), which arises from things like body-consciousness (sensual or psychological experiences). When the consciousness is conditioned (restless, limited or shrunk), the body and mind reflects the lower nature. According to the Gurbani, such limitation of the conscious mind is the real obstacle, the real barrier to the path of enlightened existence. In fact our all fear and misery arise from our sense of self-limitation or our separation from the Universal Unity (Waheguru).

How can the restricted or finite consciousness be seen as Unlimited and Unchangeable again?

What is the Unlimited Consciousness? Why one should pursue it? Simply put, the Unlimited Consciousness is the abandonment of all mental conditionings (Maya...). It is the lotus of the mind (or heart) untouched by the water of the false ego-sense. It is the Total Consciousness — individual consciousness linked or yoked with the Mool within (Source, Origin, Jot...). The mind so unconditioned is indicated in the Gurbani as Saabat Soorat (Intact or Timeless Consciousness), Joti-Svaroopa (True Image of God), Sahaj Avasthaa (Natural State of Being), Truth, Purity, Nirankaar, Fourth State (Chauthaa Pada or Turiyaa Avasthaa), Param Pada (Jeevan Padvee or Supreme State), Jeevanmukti (the State of Emancipation), Gurmukhtaa (the State of Spiritual Being), Sunn Samaadhi (the State of Spiritual Silence or Peace), Pure Love or Devotion, Mool-realization, the state of complete detachment etc.

Realization of Truth, cessation of the limited or lower mind and the ending of conditioning is interwoven. When in deep sleep (wherein one's senses are not active anymore), one's delimitation of Consciousness ceases. Similarly, when one is in such a state of deep Peace and Purity (sleep), where senses are tamed and the mouse of egoism has stopped scurrying around, the Mool is seen as All-pervading and all Bliss. However, when in a state of delimited consciousness (false ego-sense), the same Mool, in accordance with the movement of the conditioned mind, appears to toss around on account of doubt and illusoryness. But in reality, the Mool continues to remain in its Natural State, deep in the "Cave of the Heart". It is the illusioned mind (or Mayaic vision) that intervenes and makes the Mool appears as it is a some kind of limited phenomena. This reality that one is Unchangeable Awareness in which all activity takes place is indicated by Baabaa Nanak in the Gurbani as follows:

Once mind's doubt is removed and its illusoryness has fled (conditioning, anxiety, hankering, distraction, worldliness etc.), the same mind regains its balance and sees itself as the Mool. In other words, the Mool can be known only by Itself. To a detached (desireless) man, having meditated on the Mool alone as "I am Joti-Svaroopa", the Mool of that seeker reveals Its True Nature to him. To put it otherwise, the attained and the attainer, or the goal and the goer are one and the same. Thus, as time and again indicated in the Gurbani, by becoming a Spiritual Being (Gurmukh), only Spiritual Consciousness (Divine Wisdom, Shabad-Surti, God- or Naam-consciousness, Truth etc.) is worth pursuing and worth sacrificing everything for because everything else is just a mirage rising out of this Fathomlessness.

— T. Singh
www.gurbani.org

Page modified: Thursday, April 18, 2013 3:19 PM (PST)

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