Q: What is Witness Consciousness?
What is a Witness? We have heard this word called witness in the court. Some accident or some crime has happened, and a witness is called to give or to talk about the crime scene. Who is a witness? The witness is not a party to the crime. The witness is not a party in the accident. Somebody, who is non-judgmental observer. Somebody who doesn’t judge. Somebody who observes and he is able to tell facts as they are. Such a person only is called a witness.
If he is a party in the case, then he cannot be the witness. He cannot tell something truthfully. The witness in the court is able to reproduce or tell, what all happened during the crime event. So that is the meaning of the witness. Somebody who is an observer but not judgmental, and not a participant. That’s called the witness.
Let us look at the Witness Consciousness or Sakshi in us. Look at your own life. When you wake up in the morning, when you open your eyes, suddenly a feeling of ‘I am’ arises in you and then the feeling of ‘my body, my family, my house’ everything related to you arises. The first feeling which arises in you is called ‘I am’ & this ‘I am’ when it gets associated with the body thought, the mind thought & intellect thought gets a feeling of ‘I am the body’, ‘I am the mind’ and ‘I am the intellect’. This is the ego or Ahamkara in Sanskrit. The ego associates with everything. First, it says, ‘I am the body’, then it says, ‘I am so and so’, ‘I am husband’, ‘I am wife’, etc. This ‘I am the body-mind-intellect’ feeling is called Ahamkara, and this we believe is ‘ME’. Throughout our life we live with the understanding that this is ‘ME’, the ‘I am the body’ feeling.
But look at your life closely. Morning, you have a feeling of ‘I am’. Because you have a body, you have samsara and interactions. You go to sleep, again there is ‘I am’ feeling. But the ‘I am’ feeling is weak. In the waking state, the ‘I am’ feeling is strong. In the dream state, what happens is that you associate with so many other things.
You may suddenly have a different body of childhood. You may have a body of old age or you may even have the body of an animal. I don’t know. Sometimes, you may feel like flying in the dream also. So, there is a different body and there is a different ego, which is there in a dream state.
And in a deep sleep state, there is no ego. There is no ‘me’. So, in one day, there are three ‘me’s. Waking ‘me’, dreaming ‘me’, and deep sleep ‘me’. Again, it comes up. When it comes up in the morning, next day again, is it the same ‘me’ or different ‘me’?
We believe it is the same ‘me’. But the body has undergone changes. The ‘me’ says, ‘I am the body’. So, the body, when I was young, was a different ‘me’. The body, when we are old, is the different ‘me’. Because, if you are identifying yourself with the body, the body itself has undergone a change. The ‘me’ has got a few changes. Not just a little bit, it has undergone major changes.
Do you know your body itself is undergoing change every minute? Every minute there are a couple of million cells in your body are dying and new cells are being born. Are you aware of that? Do you know major organs in your body get replaced periodically? Because of the dying of new cells. Within a couple of months, you have a new liver. Within a couple of months, you have a new heart. Within a couple of years, you have a new brain. All old brain cells will be dead, and new brain cells will be replaced.
Without you knowing, there is internal change which is happening within you. That’s why it is said, once in 12 years, the person is refreshed. It is completely a new person, new body. Means, cells have died, new cells have come. Whatever cells were there originally, before 12 years back, none of them are there now.
So, this ‘me’ which is associated with the body, is not recognizing this. The body has undergone changes. Sometimes, the ‘me’, or ‘I am’ becomes the mind. The mind is upset. The mind is angry. Every minute it is undergoing change. In the deep sleep state, that ‘me’ is not there. Then, which ‘me’, are you referring to? But, you say, ‘I am constant, I am not changing’.
So, are you really referring to this ‘I am’, which is changing constantly or something which is changeless? There must be something which is not changing in all this changing. Body is changing, the mind is changing, intellect is changing. ‘I am’ is referring to body, mind and intellect. But there is something which is not changing in this. Something which is constant in this.
That is the real ‘I’. That’s why unconsciously, you know that there is a real ‘I’. That’s why you say, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’ as if you have not changed. Your body has changed, your mind has changed, your intellect has changed. But ‘I’ has not changed. That unchanging ‘I’ is the witness. So, which is the real you? Is the changing you, the real you? Or the unchanging you, is the real you?
Unconsciously, you say that unchanging ‘me’, is ‘me’. But, consciously, you associate with the body. Consciously you associate with the mind. Deep inside you know that I am unchanging. That unchanging ‘I am’ is real ‘I’. Deep inside you know. But, when you are communicating and interacting, you are confused. You associate with the changing ‘I am’.
Sometimes, you associate with the body. Sometimes, you associate with the mind. Sometimes, you associate with the intellect. But deep inside there is something unchanging in you. That is ‘I’. That is the real ‘I’. That is the witness or the sakshi.
All Vedas and Upanishads remind you that, ‘You are that’ or ‘Tat Tvam Asi’. First, you have to realize that you are the real unchanging ‘I’. That is called Sakshi. That Sakshi is the Witness of everything in the universe including your body. It is called Paramatma. Sakshi in you is called Atma. The witness of everything in the world is called Paramatma.
Everything in the world is changing. There is not a single day that there is no change in the world. Electrons are changing. Molecules are changing. Atoms are changing, plants are changing, trees are changing, Sun is changing. Everything is changing. If everything is changing, then there is something holding that changing, which is unchanging.
That something which is unchanging is called Brahman or God. That Brahman, when witnesses the changing phenomena, it is called Paramatma. So, is there Sakshi in you, who is different from Sakshi in Vishwa? They are one and the same. Deep inside you, the God, the Sakshi, Atma, one with Paramatma, is there.
Actually, this knowledge, nobody has to tell you. You know it. Unconsciously, you know. That’s why, always, you use the word, unconsciously, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’, ‘I’ as if, it is unchanging. But, consciously, you associate with changing. So, realize that Sakshi. First, you realize that you are the Sakshi. Then, after realizing Sakshi, you realize that Sakshi is nothing but Brahman. This is the path of spiritual realization.
Pranams,
Prabhuji
References:
Self-Knowledge – Talk 4_WitnessConsciousness_04Apr2016