Let us contemplate on the nature of the experience of Brahman.
As I told earlier, there are two types of experience, the experience of the world or empirical experience and second is an experience of Self realization or Brahman. How they are different? Any experience of the world requires mind, body, and intellect. In the experience of the world, there is always three, the experiencer, the experienced, and the process of experiencing…the known, the knower and the knowledge, three is there. Which means, the experience in the world is indirect, not direct. Because there is an intermediator. There is a filtering mechanism. The eyes, the senses, the mind, the intellect…they filter out the information. Our senses are limited. They filter out some information. Our mind is limited. It filters out some information. Our intellect is limited, it filters out some information. Any empirical experience in the world is not direct, it is indirect, thro’ sense organs.
Like, indirect when I say, somebody is putting glasses. Instead of seeing thro’ eyes, he has put glasses. That means, there is an intermediate agency which is called glasses. In the empirical experience or the experience of the world, the mind, body, intellect become intermediate. That is not direct. It is indirect. And there is triputi, the knower, the known and the knowledge. Whereas the experience of Brahman or Self realization, there is no triputi. There is no knower, known or knowledge. Knower, known and knowledge become knowledge, but becomes pure knowledge. The experience of Brahman, or experience of Self realization, there is no intermediator. That means, it is immediate. It is direct. There is no mind, no intellect, no body. So it is a direct and immediate experience. Whereas, every other experience in the empirical world is indirect and not immediate also. There is a gap. I see some light, I hear a sound. The sound takes sometime to reach my ears. I see some light, there is some gap between seeing and understanding. You might have seen thunder and lightning. First, you hear the lightning and then the thunder. Because lightning comes first and thunder comes later. There is a gap in experience. There is a time delay in experience. There is an intermediator in the experience of the empirical world.
In contrast to this, in Brahmanubhava or Brahmanubhuti or Self realization, there is no intermediator. There is no mediating on this. There is no delay, it is immediate. And there is no effort. For everything, an effort is required. For everything in the material world, an effort is required. If I have to see something, I have to turn my neck. If I have to see a mountain, I have to go near the mountain. There is an effort involved, there is an intermediate involved, there is a time or delay involved. Brahmanubhuti is, there is no effort. Because you cannot put an effort for. there is an intermediator like mind, body, and intellect. And there is no delay, it is immediate.
I will give an example: for empirical experience and experience of the Self: you go into a room, a dark room. I will ask you a question. Is there a chair in the room? No, I don’t know, I have to switch on the light. So, you switch on the light and see there is a chair. There is effort involved. Then you can say the chair is there. In the same dark room, I will ask you a question, are you there? No..no..no..i have to think whether I am there or not, I have to switch on the light to find out I am there or not….your experience of yourself is direct. It is immediate. It doesn’t require any light or any intermediate means. Whereas everything else requires, effort and intermediator. Brahmanubhava or Self realization is direct, without intermediator or anything, and it is effortless.
Another example: there are 10 people trying to cross a river. There is a flood in the river. Once they cross the river, they count themselves. They found only 9 people. Suddenly, the person who is counting starts crying, that one person is drowned. Then, he recollects his senses and counts again. This time he counts himself also. So brahmanubhava is recognizing what you are already. Recognizing what you are, is a recollection of what you are. It is not an effort.
Then the question comes, the scriptural teachings are there. The teachings of scriptures, Brahma cannot be known without the teaching of Guru, the teaching of scriptures. You cannot know without these. These teachings are, still for the mind and intellect. They are not realizations. They are there to help understand Brahman in an indirect way, not a direct way. That is why these are called Paroksha, not Aparoksha, indirect. Indirectly you will know Brahman, but that is not Self-realization. If somebody has studied some 100 scriptures and he is well versed in that, does not mean that he is Brahman realized. He has knowledge. This is called jnana. Brahman realization is not jnana, it is prajnana.
What is the difference between jnana and prajnana? Jnana, there is a mental understanding. Prajnana is what you are. It is a direct experience. There is no intermediator involved. Prajnanais pure awareness. So, in pure awareness, is there a knowledge of the Self? No…the knowledge of the Self can be obtained only when the intellect is there, Budhi is there. That is indirectly thro’ Self and indirectly thro’ books, and that indirect information is there for the budhi. But that is ok when the Self is associated with the budhi, because the Self is in the ignorance. To remove ignorance, you need indirect knowledge. But the moment, Self dissociates with the intellect, Self doesn’t identify with the intellect, Self merges with the mind. Then it is a non-dual experience, there is no duality. Is it a real experience? It is a real experience, there is no duality, it is direct, that is why it is called aparokshanubhuthi, it is immediate, it is effortless. And there is no mind, body, and intellect involved.
Pranams