The Inner Consciousness: How to Awaken and Direct It

by Swami Prakashananda

In describing the pure, the basic, fundamental principle of life and creation—the pure light, the self-effulgent, self-caused Divine Intelligence—Vedic sages sang in this way: “There the sun does not shine, nor the moon, nor the lightning, what to speak of the mortal fire. That shining, everything shines; by its light everything is illumined”,—by its essence everything becomes full of consciousness.

There is another Sanskrit word which expresses the same idea, Kaivalyam, the state of being alone; that which is self-caused; that which is not dependent on anything; that which is freedom itself; which is above everything. Do you see? There all differentiation vanishes—differentiation of subject and object, I and thou. All these ideas are merged, as it were, in that absolute consciousness. So the pure consciousness is that.

However, when we apply the term consciousness in our daily lives, in its varied relation to various channels of existence, in our varied experiences, in different states and conditions, we have to understand it from a dualistic standpoint, and we also have to study other phases of consciousness, such as inner consciousness and outer consciousness, soul-consciousness and body consciousness. All these terms we bring in to explain the different details, or the different stages of development, or the different stages of experience through which we have to pass.

In order to be able to understand the inner consciousness, we must know it in its relation to the outer consciousness. The light can be understood only in its relation to darkness. Praise can be understood only in its relation to blame. Joy can be understood only in its relation to suffering or pain. One who is not really hungry cannot really appreciate the value of food. So, many ideas exist only relatively. It is the same with the inner and outer consciousness. We must understand both—then both become clear. What is meant then by outer consciousness? Outer consciousness means consciousness in which we are cognizant of external things—gross forms, gross objects, sense objects. Now, every moment of our lives, the senses bring in these impressions. The senses come in touch with the external objects of nature, gross things, gross objects, objects of vision, objects of touch, objects of taste. All these objects of perception exist in gross form, and there is the impression within ourselves, or there are impressions of varied sorts. That is outer consciousness—consciousness of the outer-world, the objective world.

I am not going to enter here into a detailed exposition of what is called idealism, or realism. But outer consciousness must mean this to us: there is the idea of objective perception, and there is the objective world. We know that there is external nature, and all the time we are impressed with this idea. So when we cannot extricate ourselves from the realm and domain of forms and objects, when we cannot rise above the sense perceptions—the gross sense perceptions—when we cannot divest our minds of these externalities, as it were, then you will understand this state to be the outer consciousness.

Coming nearer the practical idea—there is the body-consciousness. As I stated previously, that means that we are conscious of the body, the body in all its phases, in all its senses, and in all its aspects.

Then there is a consciousness within ourselves. You may say that only through mind can we understand this, only through thought processes can we get knowledge of external nature. That is true, but in order to explain the inner consciousness properly, I have to bring in this idea of the outer consciousness where all these things exist; where there are nothing but external things, nothing but sense impressions, nothing but outer objects and their impressions.

What is meant by inner consciousness? Inner consciousness means: consciousness of inner forces, consciousness of inner perceptions, consciousness of what is called soul energy, consciousness of the Divine in the soul. That is a consciousness of something distinct and separate from the sense impressions, from bodily conditions, from external gross objects, from external perceptions.

Now this question may arise in your mind: Why should we try to awaken our inner consciousness? What benefit do we gain by it? We always ask that question. What are we going to gain by it? Why should we try to arouse the inner consciousness, if the outer consciousness is as explained? What harm is there in living in the outer consciousness only? Our life means that, our life means the varied duties of life—the varied responsibilities. Our life means its relation to our fellow-beings, to the world, to so many material things, to so many objects, to so many phases of external life. Our life means all this—and what is the harm in living in that state of consciousness? Why should we try to awaken our inner consciousness? Is there any necessity for it? Is it absolutely necessary—is it indispensably necessary to enter that life? Yes, it is absolutely necessary for persons in all walks of life. Why? Because while living in the outer consciousness we are not really contented. We always complain, either openly or mentally. Something is always lacking in our life. Just ask yourself this question: Are we really happy? It is not that we have to give up our external life, our material life. It is not that we have to eliminate all these things completely from our life. No. But we have to know where we stand, and we have to understand the purpose and the meaning of our external life, or outer consciousness. We must know why we have to go through life’s duties. We must know why we have to perform so many activities. What is the purpose? What is the idea back of it? Why are those condemned who neglect their duties, who shirk their responsibilities, who do not try to perform their functions, their duties properly? The idea is this: First of all, we are ignorant of the meaning and purpose of life. We cannot explain definitely the reason for all these activities. We do not know why we live in the midst of sense perceptions. Why are we experiencing these things? We have certain desires, we have certain tendencies, certain emotions, certain passions. We are regulated by them; we are carried away by them against our will. We are, as it were, enslaved by certain things, and we go on, not knowing whence we have come or whither we are going, or what is the mission of our life. That is why the question was asked in ancient times by the Vedic sages:

“What is that, knowing which, everything else will be known?” What is that fountainhead, knowing which, we shall understand the meaning and purpose of life—knowing which, everything would be explained? Everything appears to be detached, purposeless, meaningless. What is that, knowing which, everything would be illumined? That is the question. That is the desire, in reality, in every human heart. We may not be able to explain it; we may not know it properly at times; but it is there, and only the sages have put the question definitely. That is why we must try to get into that realm of pure consciousness, as I explained. There are different grades of inner consciousness. The deeper we search, the more we understand, the more will that pure consciousness be unfolded which alone holds the key. To illuminate, to unfold, to explain everything in our life, we must come to that.