From Vedic times, the outlook of Vedanta takes a discriminating look at our lives and the nature of true reality. It asks us to distinguish between the ephemeral and the eternal.

From time to time we’ve all had experiences of recognizing the dream-like qualities of life. Consider your experiences of dreaming. Sometimes dreams follow the same patterns and physical laws of the waking state. You see people and participate in events. You have sensory experiences, you communicate and you understand. You can even have the experience of continuum by going back into the same dream after being awakened, or having recurring dreams that seem like episodes in an ongoing drama.

Dreams also can exist in a dimension that is different than standard life on earth, the dream world. In dreams you can recognize people even when they have a different face. You can be in mortal danger or amidst fulfillment of your deepest desires. You can fly, move at lightening speed or be in another room instantly. You can be utterly powerless or have complete creative control by making up your dream as you go along.

Depending on your attitude about dreams, you may allow them to occur without remembering or paying much attention. Or you may place great significance on them. At some point, everyone has had an experience of recognizing ‘it was only a dream’ either during the dream, upon waking or even later in the day. Collectively our culture teaches us to recognize that dreams aren’t real. Whereas, what occurs in the waking state is considered reality.

The philosophy of Vedanta investigates these states of consciousness and takes the experience deeper. Vedantins recognize that in your waking state you move about, have encounters with people and circumstances, and experience extreme pleasure and throat-blocking fear. And, just as in the middle of a dream you can know you are dreaming, in the middle of our waking life, we can know we actually exist at a deeper, more knowing level, which is called ultimate reality.

This is what the Vedantins call jnana — knowledge, or wisdom: to experience that something bigger and far more profound underlies each of us and is the essence of the universe itself. Recognizing that there is a deeper state of existence is called, appropriately enough, awakening. 

Vedanta Comes from Vedic Times

Vedanta is a system of ideas that asks us to question our own consciousness through our experiences. The word Veda means knowledge and Vedanta means the ‘end of the Vedas,’ or the concluding portions of the earliest scriptures of India. The Vedas are a series of texts recorded from ancient rituals and ideas from a thriving civilization in the Indus River, which is located in present-day Pakistan. The earliest book of the Vedas is dated about 4,000 years ago, but most likely was composed long before.

Great sages transformed teachings from the Vedas into the brilliant verses of the Upanishads, which have been dated about three thousand years ago, but also are most likely much older. Upanishad means to ‘sit down near’ the spiritual teacher, and also means ‘secret teaching’. As part of the concluding portion of the Vedas, the Upanishads are foundational texts of Vedanta, along with the Bhagavad-Gita, which was written about 2,500 years ago and the Brahma Sutra, written about 2,000 years ago.

Among the Vedantic traditions, the most prevalent is advaita Vedanta, which is presented in this article. Advaita Vedanta means non-dualism or the view of ultimate oneness, the unity of the universe.

Things Are Not As They Appear to Be

We can look to contemporary science for a world-view that is similar to Vedanta. Scientists tell us that objects that appear to be solid are actually made of molecules of moving matter. Differences between objects and creatures are only superficial. Arrangements of atoms can change and even basic elements can change. And, as far as they can tell, the universe is made of the same basic stuff.

Again, Vedanta takes another step. It agrees that the universe is made of the same basic stuff. But it goes on to say that this basic stuff is not only the manifestation of matter. This essence is spirit. The Vedantins call it Brahman. According to the ancient scriptures, Brahman is one without a second, absolute and indivisible, both formless and with form, impersonal and personal, and manifest in countless ways.

Brahman is characterized as pure, infinite, unchanging and eternal. Vedantins use the Sanskrit phrase satchitananda to describe the awesome scope and power of Brahman. Sat means absolute existence, chit means consciousness or supreme awareness, and ananda means bliss, as in ultimate contentment, clarity or peace. Existence, or life itself, is conscious of itself and sits in perfect contentment.

We Are the Universe

According to Vedanta, Brahman, or universal consciousness dwells within each individual and is what gives us life. We are primarily consciousness and an integral part of cosmic consciousness. No matter how separate we might feel, no matter how alone, each one of us still is a vital part of the universe and cannot be separate. Each one of us is a physical-emotional-mental manifestation of Brahman. We are the divine life force that pervades the universe.

This divine life force is within each of us as our only interior reality. It is our awareness, our consciousness. This aspect of Brahman is called Atman. It could also be our individual soul or spiritual self.

What Is the Experience of Cosmic Consciousness?

Vedanta is a metaphysical system, or a philosophical study of the nature of being. As the paramount path of wisdom it can be intellectual. But the true practice is of Vedantic philosophy is immensely practical, because it says to look for yourself. 

So, how do we experience the divine consciousness within?

• We know that we exist. We are aware of our own consciousness. We have direct personal experience. Our intuitive knowledge of the Atman, or our spiritual self, is our unbroken consciousness. This is called the experience of I am.
• We are always at the centre of our experience. We only have a subjective point of view. It is only I who looks out, who feels, who experiences. We are always the subject. Nothing is outside our awareness.
• We are the knower. We are the unchanging witness of all of our states of consciousness: our waking state, our dream state, our deep-sleep state. We are aware of the presence or absence of the mind. As the ultimate knower, we experience the most subtle of all subtleties or the real ‘I’ in the sacred place of the heart.
• We are illumined by our own light. Our own consciousness is aware of itself. The Upanishads say, ‘It alone shines. It is always the same. It is Consciousness itself’.

How Come We Don’t Know It?

So, if one supreme essence, divine consciousness, is the foundation and manifestation of the universe, and each one of us is this same consciousness, how come we don’t know it? Why isn’t it obvious?

The Vedantins say we are cloaked in the veil of maya, cosmic illusion. In a classic story of Vedanta, a man was once making his way through a forest and saw a snake in his path. He stepped back in fear, then looked to see if the snake would strike. Instead, he saw a rope. Because it had taken on the curves of a snake and because fear of snakes was on his mind, he first saw a snake. A similar illusion is mistaking sand for water in a desert. Likewise, maya, illusion, cloaks our perceptions and clouds our ability to see what truly is. We are so caught up in the physical world, the body, the occurrences of everyday life and the machinations of the mind that we don’t look any further. This ignorance gives us the experience of feeling separate from divine consciousness.

Krishna, representing the power of divine consciousness, speaks of the deception of maya in the Bhagavad Gita. He says, “I am not manifest to all, being veiled by yoga-maya. And in its delusion the world knows Me not, the unborn and immutable”.

Under the influence of maya, the Atman, our divine self, forgets its divine nature, identifies with the body and mind, assumes individuality, enjoys pleasures and suffers pain in the world.

Cosmic Illusion 

According to Vedanta, maya has the power to transform ultimate reality as the physical world. The analogy is the experience of a movie. Like a film projector, maya projects people, places and events onto the screen of life. As the audience, we get caught in the drama. But the reality is actually beyond it. We mistakenly identify with the body and mind, assume individuality and have limitations when we truly are supreme consciousness itself.

Maya has the power to veil ultimate reality and to delude us into forgetting our own divine nature. The great sage Sri Ramakrishna said, ‘This maya is like a cloud. The sun cannot be seen on account of a thin patch of cloud; when that disappears one sees the sun’.  

So Where Is Ultimate Reality?

Vedanta tells us that our experience of universal consciousness or total reality is blocked by the mind. It seduces us with a reverie of memories, revised memories, impressions, dreams, fantasies, imaginary dialogues and commentary. The should-haves and would-haves and could-have-dones. The judgments and opinions and singular points of view. Ultimate reality simply is a state of being in an unending stream of focused awareness, like an unbroken flow of oil being poured. It also is recognizing that this awareness is Brahman, or the supreme state of consciousness that pervades the universe and is the universe itself. 

If, as the Vendantins say, ultimate reality is veiled, how do we find this permanent, eternal real? One method is through meditation. A consistent practice of meditation gives us the experience of the vast and profound consciousness beyond the mind. Another method is through inquiry. By questioning our perceptions and experiences we can expose the illusions of the mind to experience our deepest state of consciousness. 

The pathway starts by being present. All traditions of yoga and meditation focus on the present moment. We live in the present. What we are thinking, feeling and doing in the present is the manifestation of our consciousness and our contact with ultimate reality.

Vedanta is a yoga of exploration. It relies on each of us to make the effort to investigate our deepest nature. We can be guided by our own teachers and the dialogues of great sages of Vedanta, including Ramana Maharshi, Nisargadatta Maharaj, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Ramakrishna. Through meditation, contemplation, inquiry, readings and dialogue we can connect to the deepest part of us that is pure consciousness, aware of itself and eternal.

A story from the ancient scriptures teaches Vedanta and urges us to lift ourselves out of limitation to embrace the nature of who we truly are. Once a pride of lions was hunting on the savannah when a lion cub became lost from the pride. He wandered along a river until he came to a herd of wild donkeys. They took him in and raised them amongst the herd. He learned to eat grass, bray as loud as any of them, and kick his heels.

He lived with them for many years until one day the lions came back along the other side of the river. They watched the young lion among the donkeys acting in his most peculiar manner. One lion called to him and told him to come over to the river. He was asked to look in the river at his reflection and then to look at the reflections of the lions and the donkeys. He realized at once that he was not a donkey but a lion. They encouraged him to come with them and become who he truly was.

Vedanta asks the same of us. How can we turn our focus from silly imitation and the grip of culture to the true lion beneath? First to become intensely aware of the experience of life, its constant changes and inevitable end. Then to understand the nature of the mind, its fickleness and also its depth of understanding. And then to go beyond the mind to be intimately connected to our own divine essence and the essence of the universe.

In the great tradition of Vedanta, Sri Ramakrishna said, “Always discriminate between what is real and what is unreal, what is eternal and what is transient. Shun the transitory and fix your mind on the eternal.”

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Contemplations from Vedanta

The point of most contemplations from Vedanta is to reside in your natural state of  expanded awareness, or connection to your spiritual self. The more you investigate the nature of your own consciousness, the more you can distinguish between the ever-changing experiences of life and the eternal wisdom that lies beyond. Try each of the following comtemplations at least once with concentration. At another time, go back and spend 10 or 15 minutes with each of them. See which ones resonate most and keep them in mind. You can use them any time for meditation or at any quiet moment during the day. They will help you redirect your focus from outside events to the awareness of your inner world.

Contemplation: Not This

A classic Vedantic inquiry is to use the practice of neti, neti, which means, not this, not this. As an exercise, speak aloud everything you see or can think of. You can start with the hard material world. I am not this chair, I am not this table. Then move into the more personal realms. I am not my job, I am not my body, I am not my name. Take it deeper. I am not my breath, I am not my experiences, I am not my impressions. Continue even further. I am not my thoughts, I am not my feelings, I am not my mind. Explore beyond the heart and the mind, letting go of everything you are not.

Contemplation: Who Am I?

After the ‘not this’ contemplation ask yourself: Who am I? Keep repeating this inquiry and investigating. Examine what arises. You may find statements such as I am my own awareness. I am my own consciousness. Keep inquiring and explore statements that resonate.

Contemplation: I Am

Another classic Vedantic meditation is simply to repeat to yourself I am. Allow the feeling of I am to arise. What is the source of the feeling? Sit with the deepest experience of I am.

Contemplation: Who Is Doing the Asking?

When you ask a question, ask yourself, Who is doing the asking?

Contemplation: Who Is the Knower?

Be ready to notice when you have an insight, understanding or intuition about someone or something. How did you know? Look deeper when you have subtle experiences and ask yourself, Who is the knower?

Contemplation:  Who Is Doing the Looking?

Look at your reflection in the mirror. What is beyond the image of your body? Look deeply into your essence and ask yourself: Who is looking in the mirror?

Contemplation: The Present

The present moment carries the most vitality. It is filled with vibrant awareness. At any moment, you can sit quietly and scan the impressions of your senses—sounds, fragrance, tactile experience. You can notice the chattering of the mind and go beyond it to focus on your own consciousness. Go deeper, past the knowledge of I am. Allow that experience to enter and expand into a sense of total connectedness in the present moment. Sit in this awareness now . . . and now . . . and now . . .

For Further Reading

• Isherwood, Christopher, ed., Vedanta for the Western World, Unwin Books, London, 1975.
• Maharaj, Sri Nisargadatta, I Am That, Acorn Press, Durham, North Carolina, 1973.
• Maharshi, Ramana, Talks with Ramana Maharshi, Inner Directions Publishing, Carlsbad, California, 2000
• Nikhilananda, Swami, trans. The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York, 2000
• Prabhavananda, Swami, and Christopher Isherwood, Shankara’s Crest-Jewel of Discrimination, Vedanta Press, Hollywood, California, 1975.
• Saradananda, Swami, Sri Ramakrishna and His Divine Play, Vedanta Society of St. Louis, 2003
• Vivekananda, Swami, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Advaita Ashrama, Calcutta, 1964.