identified with the Paramatman and can therefore be said to sleep in Paramatman state and wake up in Paramatman state. He is eternally and consciously in sound sleep — the Paramatman state.

Chaitanya and Mind

To follow this discourse, the following equivalent and co-related terms must be borne in mind, as the subtle shades of their difference will automatically become apparent as we proceed:

                      Atman = Self = Purusha

                      Chaitanya = thinking = mind

                      Prana = Energy

                      Akash = Matter

                      Chaitanya + Energy + Sanskaras + Consciousness of the Universe

                              (false consciousness) = Jiva (Individual Soul).

                      Chaitanya + Energy + Self-Consciousness

                              (true consciousness) = Shiva Realized Soul).

To realize sanskaras Jiva has two mediums, viz., Prana and Akash. When realizing sanskaras, it does not realize Self, as it uses the consciousness towards experiencing the sanskaras, through the subtle and gross forms, which are the outcome of Prana and Akash.

When realizing Self, Jiva does not experience the sanskaras and so for it the Prana and Akash, the two bodies and the two worlds disappear and only Self-consciousness remains.

So Atman, in reality, plays the part of Jiva when experiencing the universe, that is, when having false consciousness; and when realizing itself, that is, having true consciousness, it plays the part of Shiva (Sadguru). Atman therefore in its pure form (Sat) is unconscious, while as Jiva or Shiva, it is fully conscious.

To make it more explicit, Atman in the beginning, as we already know, was unconscious. In becoming slightly (most finitely) conscious, it got slight Chaitanya.

This Chaitanya got slight Energy and Akash. Here we have now Chaitanya, conscious- ness and forms (Prana and Akash). In the gross plane, the evolution starts from the stone state, which contains the least amount of Chaitanya and consciousness possible. This Chaitanya and consciousness become manifest more and more in vegetation and animals until they become perfected in the human form which is also perfect, since at this stage the evolution of form ceases simultaneously with the development of full consciousness.

Chaitanya in animals is Instinct (where consciousness is not fully developed) and is Intellect in human beings (where consciousness is fully developed but is false, being used for experiencing the universe owing to sanskaras). In advanced persons, it is Inspiration and in Perfect Beings it is Realization (where also consciousness is fully developed but is true, being used for Self-Realization). So consciousness and Chaitanya are one and the same in the very beginning and in the end, but in the intermediate stages, they are distinctly apart, presented as they are in different aspects.

In the course of evolution, besides Chaitanya and consciousness (fully developed) in the human form, there are also the sanskaras which have got attached to it. Chaitanya, which is intellect in the human form, got the full consciousness that it required for Self-knowing. It makes use of it in experiencing the sanskaras that it acquired in the previous forms, while consciousness was being developed from most finite to infinite. When the sanskaras are wiped off, the body and the experiencing of the world vanish, leaving only Chaitanya and full consciousness, the former now being conscious of its own Infinity. Thus we see Atman, that is Reality, is at the back of the Trinity — Chaitanya, Consciousness and Body. Experiencing of the gross is the working of the intellect with the help of