STATES OF CONSCIOUSNESS

 
Souls with no impressions have consciousness of Self (soul, atma) and have the experience of the Over-Soul (Paramatma).

Thus souls with gross impressions experience the gross sphere through the gross body; that is, they experience different and diverse experiences such as seeing, hearing, smelling, eating, sleeping, clearing the bowels and urinating. All these are experiences of the gross sphere.

Souls with subtle impressions experience successively three planes of the subtle sphere through the subtle body, and in these three planes they have only the experiences of seeing, smelling and hearing.

Souls with mental impressions, through the mental body or mind, in the mental sphere experience only seeing, and this seeing is the seeing of God.

Souls having no impressions, through the Self experience the infinite power, infinite knowledge and infinite bliss of the Over-Soul.

The soul that is conscious of the gross body is not conscious of the subtle body, not conscious of the mental body, and not conscious of Self.

The soul that is conscious of the subtle body is not conscious of the gross body, not conscious of the mental body, and not conscious of Self.

The soul that is conscious of the mental body is not conscious of the gross body, not conscious of the subtle body, and not conscious of Self.

The soul that is conscious of Self is not conscious of the gross body, not conscious of the subtle body, and not conscious of the mental body.

The soul that has experience of the gross world does not have experience of the subtle world, nor experience of the mental world, nor does it have experience of the Over-Soul.

The soul that has experience of the subtle world does not experience the gross world, nor does it have experience of the mental world, nor does it have experience of the Over-Soul.

The soul that has experience of the mental world does not experience the gross world, nor does it experience the subtle world, nor does it have experience of the Over-Soul.

The soul that has experience of the Over-Soul does not experience the gross world, nor does it experience the subtle world, nor does it experience the mental world. That is, the soul that is conscious of Self and has experience of the Over-Soul is not conscious of the gross body, subtle body and mental body and does not experience the gross, subtle and mental spheres (worlds).

This means that in order to have consciousness of Self and to have the experience of the Over-Soul, the soul must lose consciousness of the gross, subtle and mental bodies. But as long as the soul is impressioned either by the gross, subtle or mental impressions, the soul consistently and respectively has consciousness of the gross body, subtle body or mental body, and the gross, subtle and mental experiences are persistently and necessarily undergone.

The obvious reason for this is that as long as the consciousness of the soul is impressed by gross impressions, there is no way out except to experience these gross impressions through the gross body.

Similarly, as long as the consciousness of the soul is impressed by subtle impressions, there is no way out but to experience these subtle impressions through the subtle body.

Similarly, as long as the consciousness of the soul is impressed by mental impressions, there is no escape but to experience these mental impressions through the mental body.

As impressions of the gross, subtle and mental vanish or completely disappear, the consciousness of the soul is automatically and obviously directed and focused towards itself, and this soul then necessarily has no alternative but to absorb experience of the Over-Soul.

Now, gross, subtle and mental bodies are nothing but the shadows of the soul. The gross, subtle and mental spheres (worlds) are nothing but the shadows of the Over-Soul.

Gross, subtle and mental bodies are finite, have forms and are changeable and destructible. The gross, subtle and mental worlds are false; they are zero, imagination and vacant dreams. The only reality is the Over-Soul (Paramatma).

Therefore when the soul with its gross, subtle and mental bodies experiences the gross, subtle and mental worlds, the soul actually experiences in reality the shadows of the Over-Soul with the help of its own shadows.

In other words, the soul with its finite and destructible form experiences falsity, zero, imagination and a vacant dream.

Only when the soul experiences the Over-Soul with its Self does it experience the Real with reality.