AJA DASA ON CONSCIOUSNESS IN VEDANTA

In his book This Moment: Teachings on the Nature of Consciousness (Atma Institute 2002), Aja Dasa, a Vedic priest, said that people want to know what is God, and what is God consciousness.  The reality is that consciousness IS God,  he said.  Consciousness is totally singular, as is God.  They are two names for one thing. The illusion is that there is an individual separate from God or separate from consciousness.  The individual seeks to know God or to be in God consciousness.  But first, one must understand what that individual is.

The individual says that I am--this or that.  There is an assumption that they are limited, that the consciousness of “I am” is limited.  But when “I am” is not equated with this or that, when it remains simply as consciousness, as awareness, it has no boundary.  This is the consciousness which is God.  In the Bible, God says, “I am that I Am,” not that God is this or that, but consciousness itself.  

The best example that can be given is that of the ocean and the wave.  A wave is nothing but the ocean.  A wave has no individuality of it's own.  It is in fact only the ocean taking the form of a wave, pushing up as a wave.  If the wave believes it is separate from the ocean, it may wish to reunite with the ocean.  But water is water.  There is not a boundary where the wave ends and the ocean begins.  It is only the form which arises that suggests waveness different from the ocean.

If the wave were to inquire as to what it actually is, it would find that it is nothing but water.  Not water as wave, but simply water.  In the same way, if we inquire as to what we are, what is our pure subjectivity, we find that we are simply consciousness.   All of the this's and that's are not what we are.  When we say I am this or I am that, we are identifying with an object.

Even a statement like I am consciousness identifies us with something.  But when we recognize that we are ONLY consciousness, there is nothing to limit us.  The wave saying, "I am the ocean," suggests that there are two things, the wave and the ocean.  But when God says, "I am that I am," there is not two things, only one.  When we let go of any and every identification other than being pure consciousness, we are no longer limited to individuality or form.  We are what is.

There is not a separation between the consciousness that we are and the consciousness that God is.  They are one consciousness, God arising or occurring as human, as everything.  So the question is not what is God consciousness? but rather, what is NOT God consciousness?  It is only a matter of letting go of all identifications, including being God or not being God, being individual or not being individual.  Simply be as pure consciousness, I am that I am, and then you are that.