Consciousness and Matter in Vedanta
Consciousness can be visualised as the still water in a water body, in the absence of which the waves or ripples cannot exists.
Ishwara - nothing but the water, but has the power and intelligence to create and sustain the ripples/waves in the water and finally also destroys them, after which there is nothing but still water again.
So the ripples/waves in the analogy is nothing but living/non-living matter and its just a projection of the still water. Its not different from the water. So we cannot say that the still water and the waves/ripples are different entities.
To understand this projection better, lets go through the dream analogy which is more realistic.
When the gross body sleeps, either the subtle body is active- due to which we see dreams or the subtle body is in dormant state- due to which we have deep dreamless sleep.
In dream state, the subtle mind projects itself into a dream world, the content of which is based on our past memories and vasanas in the causal body. In this dream world, we see mountains, buildings, people and they all seem tangible, hard and material. You can bump into a dream-wall and feel pain.
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In deep dreamless sleep, the gross and subtle body are in dormant state.
In all 3 states, consciousness is always present, due to which the subtle body is aware of passing thoughts, emotions and also complete absence of any thoughts/emotions.
Once the gross and subtle body gets back into the waking state, the subtle mind knows that it had a disturbed dreamy sleep or a peaceful sleep at night. So conciousness is a silent witness of a buzzing mind and also a peaceful mind.
We can say that its just a dream but at different levels- individual and cosmic.
Instead of your small, individual subtle mind creating the dream world, a cosmic dream is created by Ishwara. Ishwara “dreams” the universe into existence using universal laws (like gravity, physics, time, and space).
Because it is Ishwara’s dream and not your personal dream, it is consistent for everyone. If a rock is on the ground, both you and the person standing next to you will see it and feel its hardness.You cannot simply wish the rock away with your personal mind, because you didn’t create the rules of this waking dream — the Universal Mind did.
Just as a dream-rock is made 100% out of your subtle mind’s consciousness, a physical rock in the waking world is made 100% out of Universal Consciousness. It feels hard, heavy, and solid to your physical hands because the Universal Intelligence set up the rules of the waking world to feel that way.
Just as your subtle mind projects a solid-feeling world inside a nighttime dream without using any real concrete, Universal Consciousness projects the entire physical universe as a shared, structured experience without ever losing its true nature as Pure Awareness.
