Q 8)  Has awareness ever been absent in direct experience?
 

 

I will try to give the answer to this question with respect to my experiences from the last two to three days so that I can connect the question to my everyday experiences and also grow a deeper interest in answering these questions.

Thoughts, emotions, ideas, and feelings kept on changing, but I do not find the absence of awareness ever. Yesterday, I was sitting on my laptop and trying to make a website for the first time in my life. During that process, I found different states that I experienced in my mind. Initially, I felt a lot of interest and curiosity inside me. But after some time, I started feeling restless and bored within and wanted to get up from my work. During this process, my feelings kept changing one after another. While those changes were happening, something in me was noticing all those changes. I knew very well that I was restless, bored, or interested. That awareness was always there.

Today morning I walked for 20 minutes. During the walk, many thoughts came to my mind – about my work, about the teachings I have heard from spiritual teachers, about my own teaching classes to students of science and maths, and also about my daily responsibilities at home. At that time, my body was moving and my thoughts were also changing. But I was very much aware that I was walking and thinking. That awareness never disappeared.

Today morning I was listening to Acharya Prashant’s talk. While listening, sometimes I was curious, interested, and focused, and at certain moments my mind was wandering from here to there. In both situations, I was very well aware whether I was focused or whether my mind had wandered. This shows that awareness never disappeared and was always present.

During lunch and breakfast, I was eating food. When I was eating food, I could feel the taste of the food and also see that my hands were moving. Also, during eating my mind shifted from one thought to another. During all these moments, I was aware of everything that was happening in me. This again shows that awareness never disappeared.

So I experienced everything—thoughts, emotions, feelings, boredom, interest, curiosity, responsibility, etc.—and the knowing of all these states was never absent. Awareness was noticing everything, even when I was experiencing events unconsciously. The light that makes the whole world experienced stays always there with me, and that is nothing but awareness.

Further discussion between Abhey and Nipun

 

Abhey reply

Date: 5^th March 2026

 

Hari ॐ Nipun ji,

There is a catch:

 

In direct experience we never find these two things separately (i.e., independent on their own):

• an awareness, and

• a separate activity called noticing done by it.

 

There is no additional “awareness” standing apart and observing anything at all.

What is actually present is simply experience itself appearing with its own self-revealing nature. You can say that with consciousness appearing, a self-reflective movement in awareness appears as experience.

 

Awareness is the “Purusha” aspect (timeless), and the noticing is the “Prakriti” aspect (time & space).

Only Prakriti is known. Purusha can never be known.

 

For example:

• When boredom appears, the boredom is already known.

• When interest appears, the interest is already known.

• When thoughts wander, that wandering is already known.

 

ॐ ॐ ॐ

 

“You can say that with consciousness appearing, a self-reflective movement in awareness appears as experience.”

———

The self-reflective movement in time and space that I’m referring to is what may be termed as raaga-dwesha , sukha-dukha etc.

 

When anything appears in time and space, that is known. That is Prakriti.

Where there is Prakriti, Purusha is the undercurrent accompanying it at all times! Accompanying it can also be incorrect actually.

What I’m trying to say is that Purusha does not move with Prakriti; rather Prakriti becomes manifest in its presence (so to say, but presence again cannot be proven).

 

That’s why we say Ram-Sita, Shiva-Parvati, Vishnu-Saraswati etc

 

Where manifestation appears, consciousness is already present.

 

Nipun reply

Date: 5^th March, 2026

 

Hari ॐ Abhey ji, 🙏

Thank you for your deep message. I am trying to comprehend your message slowly and in simple words so that I can understand what you said in a better way. Please correct me where I go wrong.

You said that in our day-to-day experiences, we don’t experience two separate things, that is awareness and an activity that makes noticing happen. There is no separate observer sitting somewhere and noticing things. When I say I am aware of interest arising, then interest has already occurred; there is no separate entity. When I say I am aware of my thoughts wandering, then the wandering of thoughts has already happened; there is no separate entity that is aware of it. Thought wandering and interest arise in such a way that they are already known. I don’t need to say that I am aware of them, as if awareness is a separate entity.

Similarly, when I talk about my walking, daily responsibilities, making a website on my laptop, or listening to the talk of a spiritual teacher, I am not separately aware of all of these experiences. The moment these things happen, awareness actually occurs spontaneously. There is no need to explain that some separate awareness happens.

You also talked about Purusha and Prakriti. Everything that happens in the realm of time and space, like my body movement, thoughts, interest, boredom, website building, feelings, and sensations, is nothing but Prakriti. These are always changing and moving. On the other hand, Purusha is timeless and it can never become an object of knowledge. We can’t see it, think about it, or experience it as an object. It is the silent reality behind everything because of which everything happens, but Purusha can’t be known in the same way other objects are known. The classical example given by Swami Chinmayananda or Advaita philosophy is that when we see a movie on a screen, we see action, emotions, happiness, movement, colors, etc. All these scenes are nothing but Prakriti because they are continuously changing. But the screen remains unchanged in the background. The movie can’t happen without the screen. Similarly, Prakriti can’t manifest without Purusha.

Now I have some beginner-level questions. If possible, kindly give your reflections on them:

a) If Purusha can’t be known, then why do we (and even the scriptures) talk about it or say that it exists? Are we just inferring it through our daily experiences, since knowing it directly is impossible as it is the source of everything?

b) When I say, “I am aware of my boredom” or “I am aware of my happiness,” are these just ways of speaking? Do boredom and happiness not need a separate “I” or awareness to know them? Do they simply happen in such a way that they are already known, without any separate mechanism of mindfulness?

c) You said that Prakriti happens in the presence of Purusha. This is quite interesting but also difficult to understand. Since Purusha can’t be known or proven, how should we understand its presence in Prakriti?

d) You mentioned different examples like Ram–Sita, Shiva–Parvati, Vishnu–Saraswati, etc. Are you trying to say that they are symbols of the changeless and the changing always appearing together, as we study in Advaita philosophy?

Right now my understanding is very basic. From my experience of learning for the last 2–3 years from Acharya Prashant’s teachings, I have learnt not to treat the teachings of Advaita Vedanta as only intellectual concepts. One has to understand them in daily experiences and also be capable of expressing that knowledge in simple words, so that even a class 7th student can understand. I have already paid a lot in trying to understand these topics intellectually, and instead of getting clarity, I often became more confused or entangled.

Please guide me to understand this better step by step. I am genuinely curious to understand this topic more deeply.

Hari ॐ 🙏