Acharya Prashant: I am beyond the three fold bodies, I am beyond the consciousness, that is Brahm! Consciousness, ‘चेतना’ in the context of wisdom literature, especially Indian wisdom literature, refers to a relaxed state of understanding versus a turbulent state of thought. Consciousness can refer to both.
Consciousness can refer to the turbulence of thought that one usually experiences, or consciousness can refer to a very relaxed state of understanding. It can denote both. Here when you are reading it, it refers to the ‘settled understanding’.
You said, ‘the three fold bodies’. We talk of the gross body, the subtle body, and the causal body- स्थूल, सूक्ष्म, कारण that does not mean that there are actually three bodies or ten bodies. It only means that when you look from a gross perspective, all you see is grossness. It is in your eyes not in the object. The object does not have three layers. The object is in the mind, and all the layers that are attributed to the object are also in the mind. Let us say that you are sitting in front of me. What do I mean by your gross body? If I am terribly body identified, terribly, I see nothing but material. Then I will see only flesh in you. Only flesh. What is in front of me? Flesh. Right? This is ‘gross body’, coming from a ‘gross mind’. It is gross body coming from a gross state of mind.
If I am a little more sensitive, if I am available to the delicate nature of life, if there is something subtle in my perception, then I will be able to look at your face and see not only flesh but also your thoughts, your emotions, which are really not material, but yet I will be able to read them on your face. The same face that is flesh will not be only flesh anymore. It would be a messenger of something a little deeper than the flesh. Right? I can read your forehead, and I can see that you are worried. I can look into your eyes and say that there is something in the heart. This is the subtle mind looking at the subtle body. Right?
