From Shri.Anil Kumar's talks :
This happened on the 1st of October 2002 Swami was talking with the Ph.D.
boys. We have six students working on their Doctoral program in the Department
of Management, and Swami was talking to them.
Suddenly He asked one boy, "What is `conscious'?"
The boy said, "I don't know."
"Hmm! You are a Ph.D. boy. Don't you know what `conscious' is?"
"Well, I don't know, Swami."
"Hmm!"
He asked another professor, "What is `conscience'?"
"Swami, conscience is inner voice."
"No, no, you are wrong!"
Then He asked another senior boy, a Ph.D. student, "What
is `consciousness'?"
"Swami, I don't know."
Swami said, "Look here, `conscious' is mind. Conscious is our mind. It is
the mind that thinks. It is the mind that feels. It is the mind that reacts,
responds, pulsates, and vibrates. So `conscious' means mind."
Then Bhagavan went on to say, "'Conscience' is the intellect. Why?
Conscience is very close to the spirit, very close to the soul, very close to
the Atma. Spirit, soul or Atma are one and the same. So, intellect is very
close to Atma. This intellect is symbolized,
conveyed or expressed by this word `conscience'."
Then Bhagavan said, "Then, what is `consciousness'? `Consciousness' is
the soul, the Atma, which is all-pervading, which is encased within the body,
yet present everywhere. It is within the body and yet also present everywhere.
How? Air is present within a balloon.
Air is present within a bicycle tire. Air is present within a car tire.
Yet also, air is present all around. Similarly, the spirit or Atma is present
within everybody and is also present everywhere."
So these three words indicate three levels of awareness, three levels of
consciousness, three levels of experience, three levels of comprehension, three
levels of understanding, which we reach along the path of intensive sadhana or
spiritual pursuit. We should not stop at a particular level. `Conscious' being
the mind -- if we stop at the level of the mind, we are only emotional; we are
only passionate; we are bestial; we are more animal-minded.
If we stop at the level of the `conscience' or intellect, we are rather
intelligent, self-introspective, self-evaluating, and self- assessing. In other
words, we stop at the level of self-inquiry. We should not discontinue. We
should still proceed further to reach the state of `consciousness', the
ultimate, the reality, the Atma, the soul or the spirit, the real Self, the
cosmic Self, which is the `Universal Self', as Bhagavan put it.
And Bhagavan said laughingly, "Today you boys want to understand these
things. But the modern boys don't understand. They only know misunderstanding.
They have no idea of understanding."
OUR LIFE IS HIS MESSAGE
Sai Ram
