Chandogya Upanishad 4.14-15 Lecture 145 on 11 October 2025 Q&A

QUESTION: On Akshipurusha, Chidabhasa, and the Process of Perception

Student A: This Akshipurusha in Prajapati Vidya, there Akshipurusha referred to the gross body, Vishwa, state of Vishwa.

Maharaj: Just now I explained to you that we normally think that the eye is capable of seeing. An unconscious person, he may open his eyes. Will he see? Suppose the mind is absent. Can he see? So the consciousness is not there. Nothing of this. He is not even aware. He can't even say, I can't see. Even to say, I can see or I can't see, I can think, I cannot think. That consciousness behind should be there. That is called true seer. These are all what is called pretenders. But they do their function. They help us to carry us to God and that is what their function. Once it is there, they say goodbye forever.

Student A: So it is really, Akshipurusha means the same between the two?

Maharaj: Brahman. Akshipurusha means Brahman.

Student A: And then in the Krama Maraj that you mentioned today, from Chit comes Chidabasa and then Antakarana, the four parts. And then they direct the ten organs, senses of knowledge and action.

Maharaj: Correct. But don't mistake. Chidabasa is not a separate thing from the mind. When Chit associates with the mind, that is called Chidabasa. Just as there cannot be a reflection without a mirror. So the original person who is there in front of the mirror, take him as Chit. The mirror has the mind and the reflection. Chidabasa. So without that person, mirror cannot do anything.

So Chit and then when it is associated with the mind, it is called Chidabasa. And that Chidabasa, now the mind lends like a big merchant. Like your, I forget the name, some brothers, Lenon brothers or somebody, who lends to the banks. Lehman brothers.

And those banks lend to you. And you lend it to your children, pocket money and all those. So like that, so the mind lends it to the sense organs, sense nerve currents. The nerve currents lend it to the physical windows, what we call sense organs. And the sense organs they think, "I can see, I can see" like that. That I is called Chidabasa. And the I says I see, that is called Chidabasa. And when the mind says, "Ahh, what you see is a tree", that is called Chidabasa.

So this is how first you borrow it from the pure consciousness called Chit. And there afterwards you go on lending it to everybody.

Student A: In this process Maharaj, everything seems pure until the sense organs. Everything seems to be doing its function as expected. But somehow impurity creeps in.

Maharaj: Because the eye doesn't say "this is a worthless tree". Whether it is worth or worthless is told by whom? By the mind. Poor, my eye says, remove the beam from your eye. Jesus Christ tells, there is no beam, it is all. That is what is called when the eye looks at it first time. That is called Srishti-Drishti. And later on through experience we develop certain types of likes and dislikes. And that is called Drishti-Srishti. So this is how we are caught in this net.

Now reverse the process. Whatever I say, see a thing as it is. A tree is Brahman because it is existing. A tree is of this type that knowledge corresponds to the chit. And even a poisonous tree can give tremendous joy. Can you understand that? Somebody wants to commit suicide. Somebody wants to kill somebody. How do you think all the tribes were surviving? They find these poisonous plants and they found out through hard experience. And they put it nicely in the arrows. And that is how they kill whether it is monkeys, monkey hunting if you have ever seen on YouTube.

So all those are soldiers killing through poisonous arrows. So that is everything in this world is a wonderful medicine. You have to understand appropriately. What is the remedy for snake? Venom only. So it depends upon how you see it. Sweets becomes poison when it is taken in inappropriate proportions. Okay.

So what is being told is every spiritual practise is nothing but we have to go by Srishti Drishti as it is not as it reflected in our impure body and mind.