Question: According to advaita , we all are the same infinite consciousness bliss and through that consciousness we experience this body and mind. My doubt is, Why as universal consciousness I am unable to experience others’ minds ?
Since we all are same universal consciousness, we should be able to experience all minds but we are not. We can experience only one mind.
Sri Prabhuji:
Following is the answer.
1. Only finite can experience the other. Infinite cannot experience anything ! Let us take example. I want to see apple. I can see apple from one angle. I can take a photo. Let us say I take photo from 2 angles and then superimpose on each other what will happen. The apple photo gets blurred. If I take infinite photos of apple and superimpose on each other, – I cannot see any apple. Everything is blurred. Universal consciousness is infinite. Imagine observing any object from infinite view points – inside, outside, and all angles. The object is not at all visible. Infinite consciousness cannot know anything specifically because it is everything !
2. Infinite consciousness wants to know something in particular, it has to take a limitation. That limitation is unreal. That limited view point is your view point. Then you can see other. Obviously you can see objects because you have taken limited identity. In this case both are not real – your limited identity and the observed object. Hence what you see is mithya or unreal. But of course you are able to see something which you are not able to do when you are infinite consciousness.
3. There are two levels of reality. Absolute reality ( Paramarthik satya) and transactional reality (vyavaharika satya). Infinite consciounsess appears as limited individual in transactional reality to experience world. Both the limitation and the world are unreal. An analogy can be given. A person is sleeping in the bed. He has a dream. He sees dream forest, dream tiger, dream river. There are two levels of reality here. Sleeping person and person in the dream. Sleeping person does not know anything about the dream because he is the dream ! Sleeping person is like infinite consciousness. The dream character is able to see tiger, forest etc. without knowing that everything in the dream is unreal and everything in the dream is nothing but sleeper’s consciousness. Dream is equivalent of transactional reality.
Student: You said, sakshi only illuminates.
Sri Prabhuji: Sakshi only illminates. Sakshi is infinite – Brahman. Sakshi cannot see anything in particular it is infinite. Sakshi is atma jyothi, You.