ON THE ALTAR OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 
When the soul descends into the domain of maya, it takes upon itself the limitations of manifold existence. This self-limitation of the soul might be looked upon as its self-sacrifice on the altar of consciousness.

Although it eternally remains the same Infinite Absolute, it suffers a kind of timeless contraction through its apparent descent into the world of time, variety and evolution. What really evolves, however, is not the soul itself but only the consciousness which, owing to its limitations, gives rise to the limited individuality.

The history of the limited individuality is a history of the development of a triple entanglement with mind, energy and matter (body). Duality prevails in all these domains and the soul gets entangled therein although it is in essence beyond duality.

Duality implies the existence of opposites limiting and balancing each other through mutual tension. Good and bad, virtue and vice are examples of such opposites. The ignorant soul enmeshed in duality is in the clutches of both good and bad. The duality of good and bad arises due to ignorance, but once entangled with it, the soul comes under its sway. During the evolution of the triple entanglement with matter (body), energy and mind, the ignorant soul is continually in the grip of wanting.

It wants the good and bad of the gross world; it wants the good and bad of the subtle world; and it wants the good and bad of the mental world; and owing to the distinction of good and bad, wanting itself becomes good and bad. Wanting thus comes to be inevitably limited by the perpetual tension of the opposites. This gives rise to unending oscillation from one state to another, without arriving at the unlimited state which can only be discovered in the unchanging, eternal aspect of life.

The Infinite is to be sought beyond the domain of duality. This becomes possible only when consciousness can emerge from the limited individuality by breaking through the barriers of sanskaras.