From the Senses to Consciousness!

Shri Siddharameshwar Maharaj (1888-1936) makes a remarkably simple yet profound observation about how we know the world.

• Objects that are very near can be felt through the skin. 
• Those farther away can be seen by the eyes. 
• Those farther still can be heard by the ears.
• Taste reveals another kind of information altogether - sweetness, sourness, pungency and other qualities that cannot be discovered merely by sight, hearing or touch.

Each sense therefore has its own range and its own limitation.

But there are things subtler still.

Thought, memory, imagination, judgement, recognition and meaning are not touched by the skin, seen by the eyes or heard by the ears. They are known through the mind and intellect.

And then Maharaj points to something more fundamental:

What is it that knows the senses, the mind and the intellect themselves?

His answer is Jnana - Consciousness.

• The eyes may see an object, but consciousness knows that seeing is happening.
• The ears may hear a sound, but consciousness knows that hearing is happening.
• The mind may produce a thought, but consciousness knows that the thought has appeared.
• The intellect may analyse, compare and conclude, but consciousness is present even to that process.

"Seen this way, consciousness is not simply another faculty alongside the senses. Rather, it is the field in which all sensory experience, thought and understanding become known."

Perhaps that is why consciousness is so difficult to study directly.

Everything else appears within it.