The four states of consciousness: Viśva, and the waking state
The Supreme Lord, incarnated in the syllable Om, appears in four aspects, who preside over the four states of consciousness. The first of them is Vaiśvānara, who presides over the waking state,
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Viśva, and the waking state
The Supreme Lord, incarnated in the syllable Om, appears in four aspects, who preside over the four states of consciousness. The first of them is Vaiśvānara, who presides over the waking state, when we become busy enjoying the physical universe using our senses. These senses are presided over by the Lord and offered to the soul as an opportunity to come to the platform of devotional service, but we often miss this purpose and become fixed in sense gratification. The physical world in itself is a manifestation of the Lord, made from His energy. In one sense, it is a form of the Lord, and in another, it is not. The Lord is thus simultaneously the controller, the physical world, the senses, and the enabler of the state of consciousness that makes us aware of both.
Text 1.3
jāgarita-sthāno bahiḥ-prajñaḥ saptānga ekonavimśatimukhaḥ
sthūla-bhuk vaiśvānaraḥ prathamaḥ pādaḥ
The first state is the waking state (viśva), where consciousness is directed outward, connected with the cosmic body of seven limbs, enjoyed through the nineteen faculties. In this state, the soul becomes the enjoyer of the objects of the senses that are part of this world. The Lord of this state is called Vaiśvānara, the universal person.
Commentary: The word bahiḥ-prajñaḥ means "externally conscious", the state where our awareness is directed outwards, towards the physical world. This is the first of the four states of consciousness.
The word Saptānga describes the physical world, the cosmic body of seven limbs. These limbs are defined in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad (5.18.2) as head (the celestial planetary system, dyauḥ), eye (the Sun, aditya), breath (air, vāyu), heart (fire, agni), stomach (water, āpas), feet (the Earth, pṛthivī) and body (space, ākāśa). Together they form the physical reality where we perform our material activities, an illusory world where we can play our role of false enjoyers.
Ekonavimśatimukhaḥ means nineteen faculties through which the physical world is experienced. They are the five sense organs (hearing, touch, sight, taste, and smell), the five organs of action (speech, hands, feet, as well as the reproductive and excretory organs), the five vital airs (prāṇa, apāna, vyāna, udāna, and samāna), and the four internal senses (mind, intelligence, ego, and material consciousness).
While in this external state of consciousness, the jīva becomes the sthūla-bhuk, or the enjoyer of the objects of the senses, connected with the physical body and senses.
Everything that exists in the universe is part of the universal form of the Lord, referred to in the verse as Vaiśvānara, or the universal person. He is the form of the Lord who presides over the waking state of consciousness, where one can enjoy the different objects of the senses available in the physical plane.
Viśva comes from the Sanskrit root "viś" (to pervade, to enter, or to dwell). Nara (from the words “na riyate”) means one who does not decrease. Vaiśvānara is thus the unlimited Lord who pervades and dwells everywhere, or in other words, Paramātmā, who appears as the universal form.
In the Bhagavad-gītā, Arjuna asked the Lord to see this form, and was confronted with the terrifying vision of a form with unlimited trunks, limbs, and heads, some of them celestial, and others demoniac. He could see both the soldiers on the side of the Kauravas, as well as his own soldiers being devoured by the fierce mouths of this cosmic form.
When Arjuna asked Krsna to see His Universal form, Krsna answered: "You cannot see Me with your present eyes. Therefore, I give you divine eyes. Behold My mystic opulence!" The transcendental eyes given by Krsna allowed Arjuna to see, from the seat in his chariot, everything that exists in the universe as well as the past, present, and future. The many different forms Arjuna saw were the forms of the different demigods, demons, and other powerful beings. All these beings are empowered by Krsna to execute their activities, therefore, they are part of the Lord's Universal body. Arjuna's vision of the universal form devouring the soldiers in both armies where a vision of how the force of Kala, or universal time, would crush them in the near future. Time is an inexorable force that wears out and eventually destroys everything. Everyone and everything in this material world is eventually devoured by time.
Being a devotee, Arjuna immediately connected everything he saw with Krsna, understanding that everything that exists is a manifestation of Krsna's energy. However, he couldn't check the feelings that came from such a vision. In this way, his natural relationship of friendship with Krsna was temporarily replaced with a feeling of fear and veneration, in which Arjuna offered prayers. Krsna then showed him His four-armed form as Nārāyaṇa and finally assumed again His original form with two hands.
Apart from the universal form described in the Bhagavad-gītā, we have the universal form described in the 2nd canto of Srimad Bhagavatam as a process of meditation for neophyte yogis. This universal form is essentially an imaginary form, where different levels of planetary systems and different personalities and elements of the cosmic creation are taken as different parts and limbs. In one sense, this is so, since the universe is the energy of the Lord, but in the other sense, it's imaginary since the Lord doesn't have a material form. To meditate on the universal form of the Lord is thus an indirect form of meditation that can help yogis who are too much absorbed in material consciousness, and thus can't conceive anything beyond it.
Finally, we have the universal form as an archetype or subtle manifestation of the universe, described later in the second canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. When Lord Mahā-Vishnu performs the primary creation, he creates all possible forms, manifestations, and experiences that exist in the material universes. This leads to the manifestation of the universal form, or Virat-purusa, within each universe by Garbhodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. This form is then later pervaded by Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu. In the third canto of Srimad Bhagavatam, Lord Kapila describes how, after the manifestation of the universal form, all the different potencies and archetypal demigods enter into it, but are not capable of making it active. It awakens only when the Lord enters into it as Paramātmā, who enlivens it, leading to the process of the appearance of the physical manifestation with the cooperation of Brahma.
The subtle manifestation of the universe is this created before the appearance of Brahma. When he awakens on top of the universal lotus, the subtle universal form is already there, but invisible to Him. At this point, Brahma heard the syllables "ta" and "pa", pronounced by the Lord, and engaged in meditation for one thousand celestial years. At the end of this period, Brahma received the darśana of the Lord and finally started his process of creation, including the 14 planetary systems and all their inhabitants. In this way, Brahma appears to create the universe, but in reality, he just reveals forms that were already previously created by the Lord. As he mentions: "Inspired by Him only, I discover what is already created by Him [Nārāyaṇa] under His vision as the all-pervading Supersoul, and I also am created by Him only." (SB 2.5.17)
During the process of creation, three components are manifested from the virāṭ-rūpa: the consciousness of the living entities, their activities, and their self-identification. These three are subdivided into, respectively, one, ten, and three components.
a) The consciousness of the living entity (jñāna-śakti) has only one division, although it changes over time (according to one's desires and activities, his association with the material modes, etc.) As explained by Srila Prabhupada, originally, every soul is Krsna-conscious. When the soul enters the material manifestation, however, this original consciousness is covered by a material consciousness that allows the soul to forget his original identity and become absorbed in material activities. In other words, there are two jñāna-śaktis: the original jñāna-śakti, or original consciousness of the soul, which is spiritual and centered on the service of Krsna, and the material jñāna-śakti, or material consciousness that covers the original consciousness of the soul.
In his Paramatma Sandarbha, Srila Jiva Goswami explains that: “Though it is established that the jīva is naturally a knower, his knowing that he is a body by ignorance is also the jīva’s knowledge, but because of its relation to ignorance, it is not natural to the jīva. Rather, it is a distortion.”
In other words, this material consciousness is not natural to the jīva, who is by nature Krsna conscious. Rather, this material consciousness is received together with the package of mind, intelligence, and ego, which makes our existence in this material world possible. Our current consciousness is not our real consciousness. What we are now is not what we are in reality. That's precisely the point Prabhupada makes in his books when He describes Krsna Consciousness as the process of reestablishing the original consciousness of the soul. It is not that we are the material consciousness and need to somehow or other acquire spiritual consciousness, but rather that our consciousness is originally pure, and we need to somehow or other get rid of the material consciousness that is covering it. Prabhupada explains it by describing material existence as a kind of dreaming state. The real consciousness of a person is exhibited in the awakened state, and not in the dreaming state, and the process to recover one's real consciousness is to wake up.
Once we come in contact with the material energy and are covered by the material jñāna-śakti, the process of returning to our original consciousness is by practicing Krsna Consciousness, starting from the consciousness we have now. By following the process of hearing and chanting, meditating on the pastimes of the Lord, serving, etc, this material consciousness can be purified and our original consciousness gradually awakened. The Lord creates this whole material manifestation just to give us an opportunity to do so.
b) The activities connected with the material consciousness are divided into ten because they are performed through the vital air, which has ten divisions. The vital air is what factually maintains the material body and allows us to perform actions. In the Taittirīya Upanisad, it is mentioned that the prana-maya (the vital air) exists inside the anna-maya (the physical body) and sustains it. The vital air is also responsible for carrying the subtle body (together with the consciousness of the soul) from one physical body to the other, following the direction of Paramātma.
c) The self-identification is divided into three: ādhyātmika, ādhibhautika, and ādhidaivika. Adhyātmika means the material identification with the body and mind. Adhibhautika means identification with different material objects, situations, family members, and so on. From the idea that we are the body comes the idea that we are connected with people and objects connected with the body. One thus thinks he is a citizen of a certain nation, part of a certain family, a member of a certain social class, the owner of different material objects, the son or daughter of a certain person, the husband or wife of another, and so on. All these material identifications are part of the ādhibhautika identification. Finally, there is the ādhidaivika identification, which is identification with our original position as a servant of the Lord. By the process of Krsna consciousness, we can gradually transfer our consciousness from the ādhyātmika and ādhibhautika stages to the ādhidaivika stage.
Kṣīrodakaśāyī Viṣṇu, or the Supersoul, is the source of all the incarnations of the Lord who appear inside the universe, except Krsna and Balarāma, who are the original Supreme Personality of Godhead and His first expansion. He is also the maintainer of the physical manifestation of the universe (the virāṭ-rūpa), which is considered His incarnation. Paramātmā is thus the maintainer of both the microcosms (permeating everything, including the atom, and being present in the heart of every living being) and the macrocosms (presiding over the gigantic Virat-rūpa). Krsna refers to this in the Bhagavad-Gita when He mentions viṣṭabhyāham idam kṛtsnam ekāmśena sthito jagat, "With a single fragment of Myself I pervade and support this entire universe." (Bg 10.42)
There is, however a difference between the universal form and the different incarnations of the Lord such as Varāha, Nṛsiṁha, etc. which is the fact that in all these different incarnations the Lord appears in His original spiritual body, while the universal form is a material manifestation that is temporary and composed of material elements. The universal form is thus considered a form of the Lord because it is empowered by the Lord and made out of His energy, but it is different in nature from the transcendental forms the Lord exhibits in His incarnations. Materialists, as well as impersonalists, are captivated by the universal form (the material manifestation), while devotees are attracted to the spiritual form of the Lord.