Vedic Theory of Consciousness—Questions
Channel: Consciousness Research Centre
Date: 2023-11-24

Venkatesh asked 4 very good questions in our WhatsApp Community discussion. This is my response to his questions: 

Question 1—jagrat and svapna

Regarding the differentiation of jagrat and svapna, while svapna which is filtering out the external is understandable, why is jagrat which is extroverted consciousness regarded as filtering internal objects?, while a person is jagrat, is he not aware of his inner thoughts and mind as he is aware of the external world. I find "jagrat filtering out internal objects" difficult/contradictory to understanding.

Question 2—Upādhis

Are the upadhis in any particular ascending order?, I.e is turiya the highest state and jagrat the lowest state of consciousness. Is it a scale? If yes, How is svapna state any better than jagrat state of consciousness? Or are all the upadhis independent of each other.

Question 3—action and māyā

There is one more slide on Maya, which says action is a type of Maya. How can action be Maya, when karma yogis and lord Krishna says to Arjun to carry out his actions, how can action be considered Maya. Isn't inaction Maya?

Question 4—methods

the last slide mentions The methods of attaining specific consciousness, Where in Raja yoga is for susupti, pratyahara and dharana is for svapna and pranayama for jagrat, But Raja yoga / Ashtanga yoga contains pranayama prathara and dhyana, When both Raja yoga and pratyahara dharana dhyaana and pranayama are a part of the same subset, how can they be linked with different types of consciousness?

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Vedic Consciousness Theory (the document these questions are based on):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14qHH6_Luvlw0ufkzgg4DETVS108tM_Jv/view?usp=share_link

Four States of Consciousness Diagram:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=10qNtu-cYIFP-gOfNLLRYGr445jYfj4Yz&usp=drive_fs

Channel Video Catalog:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1EZFqp9G893-LMYSm-ucUt3CylMTbfLV2&usp=drive_fs