those objects which are within the purview of the mind, so there is a limited
perception instead of cosmic perception.
When the consciousness passes through the medium of the mind, it identifies itself
with the mind, just as light passing through a mirror becomes indistinguishable from
the shining character of the mirror. We attribute the shining character to the mirror
itself and say the mirror is shining, while the mirror is not shining—it is the light that
shines. The mirror is only a medium through which the light has been reflected, but
they have been identified to such an extent that the one is practically inseparable
from the other. Thus, the subtle faculty of the psychological organ, which is the
buddhi in us, the intellect, does various things simultaneously—namely, reflecting
the consciousness in it, limiting it, distorting it, and channelling it towards a
particular object. All these things are done at one stroke. It is pulled, as it were, with
great force.
This identification of consciousness with the psychological organ is the first stage in
the process of a perception of an object. An identification has already taken place.
The limitation of the consciousness has been effected thoroughly, effectively, and
then it is drawn towards a particular location which is called the object. We have
studied enough about this earlier—how the mind pervades the form of the object,
identifying with the form of the object, and then there is an awareness of the
formation of the object. Then it is that we say, “I am aware of an object.” In this I-am-
aware-of-the-object experience there is, therefore, a limitation of consciousness to
the circumstances of the object on account of the peculiar way in which the mind
functions.
The identification is, therefore, twofold. Firstly, there is the identification of
consciousness with the psychological organ, and then a subsidiary identification of it
with the object, which takes place afterwards. In this consciousness of an object, self-
consciousness has already been lost completely. One loses one’s consciousness first,
in order that one may be conscious of an object outside. Self-loss is the condition of
the gain of an object. One cannot concentrate one’s mind on an object unless one has
forgotten oneself first, because one has moved away from the centre which is one’s
self. The self has transferred itself to another location, found itself somewhere else,
and the object becomes the subject of phenomenal experience. This is called
samsara; this is called involvement. Consciousness gets involved. It is not an
ordinary kind of involvement; it is an identification which makes it impossible to
detect of the phenomenon that has taken place. That is the very meaning of
identification.
Hence, in the awareness of an object, or world-consciousness, there is a total loss of
the original status of the seer, or the pure drasta, and a getting mixed up with the
means of knowing, as well as with the object that is known. The purpose of yoga is to
disentangle consciousness from this involvement. It is because of the entanglement
that one is unable to detect the cause of suffering. The suffering is caused by this
involvement. The changes that are characteristic of the object are attributed to
consciousness, which is changeless, and then there is a feeling that one’s Self is
undergoing modifications. There is birth and death even, which is really not capable
of being ascribed to consciousness as such, but this is being done on account of the
transference of the transitory characters of the object to the unchangeable character
of consciousness.