Also in: French Italiano More

What is Consciousness? 6 Myths Busted and 4 States

Explained
Sadhguru defines consciousness and busts some common myths about a much misunderstood topic.
Explaining that consciousness has nothing to do with the mind, he outlines different conscious states
from a Yogic perspective.

Article Mar 22, 2021

Table of Content
1. What is Consciousness?
2. Six Myths About Consciousness
3. Consciousness and Brain - Are they Related?
4. Four States of Consciousness
5. Degrees of Consciousness
6. How to Raise Consciousness
7. Yoga and Consciousness
8. Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya - A Technology to Raise Consciousness
9. Infrastructure for Raising Human Consciousness
10. Consciousness in Animals - Do Animals Have Consciousness?
11. Can Consciousness Be Programmed and Can Machines Become Conscious?
12. Scientific Study on Consciousness

What Is Consciousness
Sadhguru: “Consciousness” is a highly abused word. It is used in many different
ways. Let me define what we refer to as consciousness. As a piece of life, as a
body, you are a certain amount of earth, water, air, fire, and ether, or akash. And
there is a fundamental intelligence that puts all these things together in a
particular way to make life out of it. The same ingredients that are lying there as mud sit here
as the life you are. What an incredible transformation! There is a profound and unimaginable
level of intelligence that can make simple things like air into life.

The only reason why you

experience life and aliveness is
because you are conscious.

Whether it is a tree, a bird, an insect, a worm, an elephant, or a human being – everything is

made up of the same simple material. We call this intelligence that makes life happen
“consciousness.” If you are unconscious, you do not even know whether you are alive or dead. If
you are in deep sleep, you are alive, but you do not know it. The only reason why you
experience life and aliveness is because you are conscious.

6 Myths About Consciousness

Myth Buster #1: Wakefulness Is Not Consciousness
The nature of English language is that it is very good for describing and defining external things,
but is very limited when it comes to internal dimensions of many aspects of who we are. To use
Yogic terminology, what is generally being referred to as consciousness is jagruti – that means
wakefulness. But we do not consider wakefulness as consciousness. Wakefulness is a state of
the body, mind and the bio-energies within us, but that is not consciousness.

Myth Buster #2: Self-consciousness Is Not

Consciousness
Consciousness does not mean becoming self-conscious. Self-consciousness is sickness;
unconsciousness is death. Being conscious just means that you are in touch with the root of
who you are. What you call as consciousness is not an act, an idea or even a quality – it is the
very basis of creation.

Myth Buster #3: Consciousness Cannot Be “Done”

Consciousness happens not because you are doing something, but simply because you have
allowed it. Life is happening to you, but it is not your doing. What we are calling consciousness
is the basis of your life and your existence. It is not something that you can do or not do at a
particular time. Consciousness is still on whether you are in this body or you are disembodied.
The question is only whether it is available to you or not. You are always available to
consciousness – you cannot escape that – but is it available to you?

Myth Buster #4: Consciousness Is Not Alertness

If we say your consciousness has risen, it does not mean that you are more alert than your
German Shepherd. Alertness is of the mind. Consciousness is not of the mind, but if
consciousness is on, it clears the mind. It forcefully finds its expression through the mind and
body, and through every cell of your living being.

Myth Buster #5: Consciousness Is Not a Mental

Understanding
Consciousness is not a bunch of thoughts or a certain level of understanding, it is a boundless
dimension. We have different aspects or dimensions of intelligence functioning within us; our
body and cellular structure has its own intelligence, there is a conscious level of intelligence, of
intellect which is discerning in nature, there is an emotional intelligence and a genetic
intelligence. All these dimensions of intelligence are ruled by the memory that we have
accumulated. Our genetics, intellect, emotions and the very way our body functions is ruled by
the memory that it carries. What you call as memory is a certain kind of boundary. For example,
"This is my friend, this is a stranger," how did this happen? This person is in my memory, this
person is not in my memory, that is what differentiates the two. Memory creates possibilities,
but a limited possibility within the boundary. What we are referring to as consciousness is a
dimension of intelligence which is free from memory. It is boundless in its nature.

Myth Buster #6: Anesthesia Has Nothing to Do

with Consciousness
Anesthesia has nothing to do with consciousness; it has something to do with body and various
functions of the body. You are shutting down certain aspects of the bodily functions like
transmission of pain, which is the main interest when someone is going to surgery. This has got
nothing to do with losing consciousness and gaining consciousness. There is no such thing. Not
just in medical terminology, generally in English language, there is no distinction between "He
became conscious" and “consciousness” as a larger possibility.

(Read more about consciousness and anesthesia in this article by Sadhguru)

Consciousness and Brain - Are they Related?

In the Yogic sciences there is no such thing as brain. Brain is just body. Like there is a heart and
liver, there is a brain. I think this overly exaggerated sense of what is brain is coming because
our education systems have become purely intellectual. We think intellect is everything. In the
Yogic system, we are looking at the human mind as sixteen parts. These sixteen parts are in
four categories. The first one is buddhi which means the intellect. Intellect is essentially like a
knife. You use a knife to cut things open.

Buddhi
This is the nature of the intellect that it will dissect whatever you give it. The entire modern
science is coming out of human intellect – so everything is by dissection. What you can know
by dissection is only the material aspect of life. You cannot know life by dissection.

We say, “If you touch your chitta,

god will become your slave,”
because if your intelligence
becomes boundless, everything
becomes accessible.

The intellect is a survival instrument. If you did not have a discriminatory intellect, you could not
survive on this planet. It is very vital. But intellect cannot function unless there is a certain
volume of memory. If you wipe out all your memory, you will suddenly look stupid. Intellect
looks smart only when you back it up with information.

Today, there is too much orientation towards intellect and the other dimensions of intelligence
are completely uncultivated.

Ahankara
The next dimension of the mind is referred to as ahankara which we have completely ignored.
Ahankara does not mean ego as most people are beginning to think. It means identity. Intellect
is an instrument which protects the identity. Identity is that instrument which allows the
intellect to function in a certain way. Now if you say, “My identity is my family,” your intellect
will do everything to protect that. In the name of race, religion, nation, we have done many
things which are utterly idiotic and inhuman, but we do them with great pride because we are
identified. If intellect is the knife, the hand that holds it is the identity.

Manas
The next dimension of the mind is called manas, which is a silo of memory. There are many
states of memory. The Yogic system is focused on how to activate different dimensions of
memory because with a limited amount of memory, you are bound to act in immature ways. If
your intellect becomes super capable, it is very important that your identity is cosmic or
limitless and your memory is so evolved that all dimensions of memory are active.

Chitta
The fourth dimension of intelligence is referred to as chitta. This is a dimension of intelligence
which is unsullied by memory. Memory is the basis of all forms that have happened. It is the
memory stored in this body which is deciding the color of our skin, or whether we are male or
female, a human being or some other creature. Memory is a tremendous possibility but is also a
limitation and a boundary. The boundary between what is you and what is me is just memory.

Subscribe
Get weekly updates on the latest blogs via newsletters right in your mailbox.

Full Name

Email Address

Country
 I'm not a robot
reCAPTCHA
Privacy - Terms

Sign Up

But chitta has no memory. No memory means no boundary. It is an intelligence beyond bounds.
In the Yogic culture there is a mischievous way of expressing this. We say, “If you touch your
chitta, god will become your slave,” because if your intelligence becomes boundless, everything
becomes accessible.

4 States of Consciousness
Jagruti
For wakefulness, we have a word called jagruti. If you are in a state of jagruti, it means you are
awake. If ten people fell asleep and they came awake, when they come awake, all of them will
not be equally awake. One person may be instantly awake, another person may take two
minutes, another person will take an hour to wake up. Another person needs a strong coffee,
otherwise they will not wake up. Like this there are different levels of wakefulness, too. This is
jagruti. This wakefulness is not consciousness.

...there is an intelligence beyond

memory which we call as turya or
chitta. This is consciousness.

Swapna
The next dimension of consciousness is called swapna, which means a dream state. A dream
state is far more vivid than the wakeful state for most human beings. It is like going to a
cinema. If you go to a cinema, the key factor in the impact the cinema has on you is turning off
the lights. If you do not turn off the lights, the cinema will be no good, no matter how well it is
made. So a dream state is like a cinema. Turning off the lights in our experience is the eyelids. If
you close your eyes, the lights should be off, the world should be closed. This dream state is
considered a more powerful state than jagruti. Jagruti or wakefulness is important for
performing action in the world but for human consciousness, in terms of profoundness of
experience, a dream is always more profound than walking on the street.

Sushupti
The next state is called as sushupti which means a dreamless state, but there are dimensions of
consciousness that you are aware of. It is a totally dreamless sleep state, but you are aware.
There is no picturization or video running in your mind, there are no people or words, but you
are conscious in your sleep. This is a very powerful state if you really want to manifest
something in your life. This is something to be explored.

Turya
The last state is called turya. This is consciousness, where there is no memory involved of any
kind. In the Yogic sciences, we are looking at consciousness essentially as an intelligence beyond
memory. Memory is considered a boundary. This is one person and that is another person,
simply because this embodies one kind of memory and that embodies another kind of memory.
Memory does not mean just what I remember and you remember. There is genetic,
evolutionary, elemental, atomic, karmic, inarticulate and articulate memory.

These different dimensions of memory are playing on a daily basis. For example, today, if we eat
dog food, we will not become dogs. Something within us remembers, no matter what you eat,
this has to be transformed only into a human being – the evolutionary memory is absolute.

People think that their thoughts are free. This is a joke because your memory is determining
everything. In one word, we call this karma. Karma is the residual impact of all the memory that
you have. It is impacting your every thought, emotion and action. The very way you sit, stand,
breathe, understand and perceive life is determined by this memory. But there is an intelligence
beyond memory which we call as turya or chitta. This is consciousness.

i
Degrees of Consciousness
All of us are conscious, the question is only of degree. Even a rock, a dog and a pig are
conscious. The question is only how conscious they are. Even among us, how conscious we are
is different from person to person. This degree of consciousness determines everything. To give
an analogy, I am sure every one of us blew soap bubbles at some stage in our life. When you
blow a soap bubble, the soap part of it is very little, the large part of it is the air that it captures.
The kind of soap and how it gathers is your memory. It gives it a form. But when the bubble
bursts, there is no such thing as your air and my air. There is something called as your body and
my body, your memory and my memory, your intellect and my intellect, but there is nothing
called as your consciousness and my consciousness. How much of it did you capture or how big
is your bubble will determine the scale and possibilities of your life.

How to Raise Consciousness

You can neither raise consciousness, nor can you bring it down. We only use the expression of
“raising consciousness” against the following background: if you are strongly identified with
your physical body, the boundaries of what is you and what is not you are distinctly clear. In this
state, you experience yourself as a separate existence. This means you are in survival mode,
which is what every other creature is in, too. When you identify yourself as the body, the
boundaries of who you are, are 100% fixed.

You do not have to raise your

consciousness – you have to raise
yourself to find access to it and
experience it. Consciousness is
there all the time.

Even in the physical realm, the more subtle something is, the more the boundaries disappear.
We are breathing the same air, which also includes some moisture. As we breathe, we
constantly exchange air and water. We have no problems with this exchange between us
because we are not identified with the air and the water. But we are identified with our body
and consider it as ourselves, so we do not want anyone to transgress the boundaries of our
body.

What we refer to as consciousness is a much subtler dimension of who you are, and it is
commonly shared by everyone. It is the same intelligence that is turning food into flesh in me, in
you, in everyone. If we move people from being identified with the boundaries of their physical
body to a deeper dimension within themselves, their sense of “me” and “you” decreases – “you”
and “I” seem to be the same. This means consciousness has risen on a social level.

Essentially, we do not raise consciousness. We raise your experience so that you become more
conscious. All of us are conscious to some extent. The question is to what degree you are
conscious. You do not have to raise your consciousness – you have to raise yourself to find
access to it and experience it. Consciousness is there all the time. If it was not, you would not
be able to convert your breath and your food into life. You are alive – that means you are
conscious. But so far, you only have minimal access. As your access improves, your sense of
boundary expands. If you become identified with consciousness, you will experience everyone
as yourself. This is what Yoga means.

Yoga and Consciousness

The word “Yoga” means union. Human beings are trying to experience this sense of union in so
many ways. If it finds a very basic expression, we call it sexuality. If it finds an emotional
expression, we call it love. If it finds a mental expression, it gets labeled as greed, ambition,
conquest, or simply shopping. If it finds a conscious expression, we call it Yoga. But the
fundamental process and longing are the same. That is, you want to include something that is
not you as a part of yourself. You want to obliterate the distance or the boundaries between
you and the other.

Instead of talking about it and

intellectualizing it, we are
looking at how to raise your
experience from the physical
 aspect of who you are to a
dimension beyond the physical.

Whether it is sexuality or a love affair, ambition or conquest – all you are trying to do is make
something that is not you a part of yourself. Yoga means becoming one with everything, or in
other words, obliterating the boundaries of who you are. Instead of talking about it and
intellectualizing it, we are looking at how to raise your experience from the physical aspect of
who you are to a dimension beyond the physical.

Shambhavi Mahamudra Kriya - A Technology

to Raise Consciousness
This is what Shambhavi does. It takes you to a twilight zone. You are still rooted in the body but
you are beginning to touch a dimension beyond, so that your experience of life is not limited to
your body – you experience it as a larger phenomenon. This is raising consciousness. It means
you experience all the people around you as a part of yourself.

The material that makes the five fingers on your hand was in the earth some time ago, and
now it is your five fingers. What was on your plate yesterday as food was not “you.” But you ate
it, and today you experience it as a part of yourself. You are capable of experiencing anything as
a part of yourself if only you include it into your boundaries. You cannot eat the entire universe.
You have to expand your boundaries in different ways.

Expanding the sensory boundaries in such a way that if you sit here, the entire universe is a part
of yourself, is Yoga; this is raising consciousness. We are not doing it philosophically or
ideologically but experientially, using a technological process that everyone can make use of.
The nature of a technology is such that it will work for whoever is willing to learn to use it. You
do not have to believe it; you do not have to worship it; you do not have to carry it on your
head. You just have to learn to use it.

Infrastructure for Raising Human

Consciousness
A hundred years ago, if you walked into an Indian village, you had to search the whole village to
get one man who could read and write in just the local language itself. But today, at least 70%
of the population can read in their own mother tongue and many can speak English. The
turnaround happened because someone built schoolrooms and trained teachers.

Similarly, to raise human consciousness, to transform the individual human being, the most
important thing that needs to happen in the world is that we build the needed infrastructure,
both human and otherwise.

In the past, there was phenomenal infrastructure in this country for inner wellbeing. There are
more places created for spiritual blossoming than anywhere else on the planet. So, it is not a
coincidence nor is it an accident that every generation produced enlightened beings.

But that infrastructure is now receding, not growing. This is one of the commitments that Isha
has for the world: we want to build infrastructure for the inner wellbeing of the human being.
When I say infrastructure, I am not just talking about physical infrastructure. Physical
infrastructure is just to incubate human infrastructure. The most important thing is what kind
of people you generate. Without the right kind of people, you cannot transmit this science
because this is a subjective science. Without the right kind of people, it will not get across to
people the way it should.

(This short excerpt was taken from this blogpost)

Consciousness in Animals - Do Animals Have

Consciousness?
An animal is programmed in such a way that its life is largely fixed around its survival process.
For any creature, once their stomach is full, their life is settled. They just sit there happily. But
that is not the nature of the human being. When the stomach is empty, there is only one
problem; when the stomach is full, there are one hundred problems. This is the nature of the
human being, because survival is not the endgame for us, it is the beginning. But for all other
creatures, survival is the endgame for them. But even among them, certain creatures are far
more capable of being sensitive to consciousness. Wherever there is consciousness, certain
creatures behave in a certain way. In Indian mysticism, there will always be a cobra simply
because we have always seen that wherever there is a little bit of access to consciousness,
these creatures somehow sense it and they arrive.
What makes them sense it? This is not a certain science for me, I am just guessing – because
they are stone deaf, I think they are super alert in some other sense. For example, a cobra in
southern India has no ears at all, no hearing mechanism, so it has got the whole body to the
ground and literally ear to the ground. It is able to sense even the minutest vibrations in the
planet. It has a sensitivity to certain vibrations. When someone accesses what we are referring
to as consciousness, the other vibrations which everyone is normally throwing out on a day-to-
day basis – their physical and psychological stuff – probably becomes minimal. This lack of that
reverberation is something that a cobra senses. If you sit in a forest and become meditative,
cobras will gather in front of you. They will come and sit there as if they are waiting for you.
This has been my personal experience any number of times and this will be vouched for by any
number of Yogis in the tradition.

Can Consciousness Be Programmed and Can

Machines Become Conscious?
Everything that you know has a limited boundary – body, psychological space, emotional space
and energy space. Consciousness is not bound by anything. It is the ultimate motherboard of
the existence. So can we make a machine conscious? It is a ridiculous thing. I want you to
understand that even you cannot become conscious. The word “conscious” is being used in so
many different ways that it is confusing but there is consciousness. If you dissolve your physical,
psychological, emotional and energy forms, you have become consciousness. Not that you
became conscious in the sense that you possess consciousness, but you have become
consciousness. You can neither generate consciousness within this nor in any of your electronic
stuff. This is a complete misunderstanding. Essentially, when we say consciousness, we are
talking about the fundamental. Everything else is a pop-up. The galaxy is a pop-up, solar system
is a pop-up, the planet is a pop-up and you are a pop-up. A human being has the ability to not
just be a pop-up, but become the source. When you become that, in some way you dissolve
your identity, because your body, your mental structure essentially is because of identity.  

In your experience, what is you and what is not you is a made up reality that you make up by
identifying with it. Whether it is an object or a person or a thing or a property, including your
body and mind, you only feel that it is you when you are identified with it. So if you withdrew
your identities, then you dissolve. Not that your body will melt away – it is still sitting here –
but because you have withdrawn your identity, it has dissolved from your experience. Then you
are consciousness, because that is the basis of your existence.

i i i i
Scientific Study of Consciousness

Sadhguru
@SadhguruJV · Follow

Congratulations. A path-breaking step in exploring the

relationship between Consciousness, Cognition &
Compassion and medical science. Look forward to
achievements in the coming years. Best Wishes. -Sg
@BIDMChealth @BIDMCAnesthesia
@harvardmed

newsable.asianetnews.com
Healing through consciousness: Harvard affiliate takes forward
Sadhguru's vision

9:30 PM · Nov 27 2020