The grand idea of Vedanta – the grandest of all philosophies – is not about changing the world. Swami Sarvpriyananda says, “Karma Yoga tries to change something – do good to the world and it purifies the mind. Bhakti Yoga tries to take away all our desires of the world and focus it all on the love of God. Raja Yoga – path of meditation – makes a change in the mind; the focus is on God, it tries to change the focus of the mind and attain samadhi of the mind. Gyan Yoga alone, of all the paths of yoga, does not try to change anything. It just tries to get knowledge, which removes ignorance. “Vedanta makes no such claim (of change).”
A prerequisite to understanding Vedanta is to comprehend the concept of Self (साक्षी, Witness), the distinction between the “knower” and the “known”. Three principles help highlight the space/distance between the knower (seer) and the known (seen).
- Seer and Seen are different.
- Seer is one, Seen are many.
- Seer is relatively stable, the Seen keep changing.
Using the above three principles, we can say:
Eyes are the seer, objects outside (shapes, colors) are the seen. There are many different objects, but our eyes are one. Objects change, but relatively speaking, eyes don’t. Let’s go one layer behind/inside/deeper. We know that our mind is actually the one seeing, eyes are just an instrument of seeing. Mind and eyes are therefore different. We can “see” (food, loved ones, objects, etc.) with our eyes closed. Therefore mind is the seer. And eyes are nothing more than an object, which also changes over time, and hence “seen”.
You are not your mind, because you can control your mind with your will
– Satguru Sivaya Subramaniaswami
We also know our minds. It changes over time, we know some states of our mind. We also know the “contents of our mind”. Mind has many states, and changes over time. “I” know the various states of my changing mind. Therefore, “I” am different from my mind. This “I” is the seer and the mind is the seen. This witnessing “I” is the Self – साक्षी.
Hence the statement, “I am not this body, I am not this mind”.
धार्मिक छवियाँ 