𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻: 𝗔𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗮𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗰 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀

The Knower of All Can not Be Known

(A Comprehensive Reflection on the Advaitic Vision of Consciousness)

Among the profound declarations of the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, few are as philosophically revolutionary and spiritually transformative as the dialogue between Yajnavalkya and Maitreyi. In this passage, Yajnavalkya dismantles the ordinary understanding of consciousness, individuality, and knowledge itself. He points toward a reality beyond subject and object, beyond knower and known, beyond all dualistic experience.

The mantra culminates in the unforgettable declaration:

विज्ञातारमरे केन विजानीयात् ?

“Through what, O dear one, shall the Knower be known?”

This single statement forms one of the central pillars of Advaita Vedanta. It reveals that Consciousness is never an object among objects. It is the eternal Subject — the self-luminous reality because of which all experiences become possible.

The teaching does not deny the world of experience. Rather, it reinterprets it. Waking, dreaming, deep sleep, individuality, multiplicity, perception, knowledge, action, bondage, liberation — all are understood as appearances in one indivisible Consciousness.

Let's try to explore the meaning of this great mantra through the lens of Advaita Vedanta, Saṅkaracarya’s commentary, the analysis of the three states (avastha-traya), and the distinction between empirical consciousness and pure Awareness.

The Upanishad says:

यत्र हि द्वैतमिव भवति तदितर इतरेण पश्यति ।

तदितर इतरेण जिघ्रति ।

तदितर इतरेण रसयति ।

तदितर इतरेण अभिवदति ।

तदितर इतरेण शृणोति ।

तदितर इतरेण मनुते ।

तदितर इतरेण स्पृशति ।

तदितर इतरेण विजानाति ।

यत्र त्वस्य सर्वमात्मैवाभूत् तत्केन कं पश्येत् ।

तत्केन कं विजानीयात् ।

विज्ञातारमरे केन विजानीयादिति ॥

“Where there is, as though it were, duality, one sees another, smells another, speaks to another, hears another, thinks of another, and knows another. But where everything has become the Self alone, then through what and whom would one see, know, or experience? Through what shall one know the Knower?”

The key word here is:

इव (iva) — ‘as if’

Yajnavalkya does not say there truly is duality. He says there appears to be duality.

This tiny word preserves non-duality even amidst the experience of multiplicity.

Particular Consciousness and Pure Consciousness

Ordinarily, when we use the word “consciousness,” we mean:

• seeing,
• hearing,
• thinking,
• remembering,
• feeling,
• desiring,
• imagining,
• knowing objects.

This is empirical or particular consciousness — awareness functioning through mind and senses in relation to objects.

Advaita calls this:

• vritti-jnana,
• empirical awareness,
• conditioned consciousness.

Yajnavalkya points out that all such experiences are possible only where duality appears:

• subject and object,
• knower and known,
• experiencer and experienced.

Whenever there is:

• something seen,
• someone seeing,
• and the instrument of seeing,

there arises particular experience.

But pure Consciousness (Cit) is different.

It is not:

• a thought,
• sensation,
• perception,
• memory,
• or mental state.

It is that because of which all these are known.

The Three States: Waking, Dream, and Deep Sleep

Advaita uses the analysis of the three states (avastha-traya-viveka) to unfold this truth.

1. Waking State

In waking:

the senses function,

the mind functions,

there is a world external to us,

and there is the ego saying:

“I am experiencing this world.”

Thus: seer, seeing, seen all appear.

This is the experience of duality.

2. Dream State

In dream: the external senses are inactive,

yet a world appears internally.

The dreamer: sees, hears, fears, desires, suffers, enjoys.

But upon waking, we realize: no external object was actually contacted. Still, duality appeared within the dream.

Thus dream too is an experience of subject-object multiplicity.

3. Deep Sleep

In deep sleep: mind is inactive, senses are inactive, ego disappears, no objects appear.

There is: no seeing, no hearing, no thinking,

no individuality.

Particular consciousness disappears.

Yet upon waking we say:

“I slept happily; I knew nothing.”

Therefore some principle persisted even through deep sleep.

That witnessing Consciousness never disappeared.

A common misunderstanding arises here.

If duality disappears in deep sleep, then is liberation merely deep sleep?

Advaita emphatically says: No.

Deep sleep is not enlightenment because:

ignorance remains, non-duality is not consciously recognized, the mind is dormant, not illumined.

In liberation: ignorance is destroyed, Brahman is recognized as one’s own nature, non-duality is known.

Thus mokṣa is not unconsciousness or blankness. It is limitless self-luminous Awareness free from false identification.

The Upanishad’s great question is: “Through what shall one know the Knower?”

Every object requires a means of knowledge:

• eyes reveal form,
• ears reveal sound,
• mind reveals thoughts.

But what reveals the revealer?

The Self cannot be objectified because it is the eternal Subject.

It is self-luminous (svayam-prakasa).

Just as a lamp illumines itself and other objects simultaneously, Consciousness reveals:

• body,
• senses,
• thoughts,
• ego,
• world,
• ignorance,
• and even the idea of enlightenment.

But nothing else reveals Consciousness.

“I Have Consciousness” vs “I Am Consciousness”

This distinction is central.

To say: “I have consciousness”

subtly treats consciousness as a possessed object.

But Advaita says: You do not possess consciousness.

You are Consciousness.

Everything objectifiable belongs to the category of the known:

• body,
• thoughts,
• emotions,
• memories,
• ego,
• intellect.

All are experienced.

Therefore they cannot be the ultimate “I”.

The true “I” is the Knower that can never become known as an object.

The mirror analogy beautifully clarifies this truth.

Suppose one sees one’s face reflected in many mirrors.

The reflections may be:

• many,
• distorted,
• moving,
• multiplied.

Yet the original face remains one and unaffected.

Similarly:

• bodies,
• minds,
• worlds,
• subject-object duality

are reflections in Consciousness.

Consciousness itself never becomes divided.

Removing the mirror removes only the reflection — not the original face.

Likewise, the disappearance of body and mind does not destroy Consciousness.

The Meaning of Jivanmukti

Advaita therefore uniquely declares that liberation is possible while living.

The enlightened person continues:

• seeing,
• hearing,
• acting,
• speaking,
• teaching,
• functioning in the world.

But inwardly knows:

“All this is Brahman alone.”

The movie continues, but its reality is understood to be only the screen.

The jñānī does not need to:

• stop perception,
• destroy the world,
• enter permanent trance,
• or reject life.

Rather, the error of separateness disappears.

This is why Advaita is compatible with full participation in life.

Non-duality is not opposed to experience.

It is the truth of experience.

The Error of Otherness

Saṅkaracarya’s genius lies in beginning with the undeniable certainty of experience itself.

Everything may be doubted:

• world,
• body,
• concepts,
• perceptions.

But experience itself cannot be denied.

Even doubt is experienced.

Advaita then performs its radical operation:

it removes the illusion of “otherness.”

The ordinary view says:

“I am here; the world is outside me.”

Advaita says:

• body appears in awareness,
• mind appears in awareness,
• world appears in awareness,
• all distinctions appear in awareness.

Thus:

• inner and outer,
• subject and object,
• self and other

are appearances within non-dual Consciousness.

This is the meaning of:

सर्वं खल्विदं ब्रह्म

“All this indeed is Brahman.”

Enlightenment Is Recognition, Not Production

Liberation does not produce Brahman.

It removes ignorance.

Just as:

removing darkness does not create the sun, removing the snake illusion does not create the rope, knowledge removes only the mistaken identification: “I am limited.”

This is not an achievement.

It is recognition.

One does not become Brahman.

One discovers: “I was never anything else.”

The teaching of Brihadaranyaka Upanishad represents one of humanity’s deepest philosophical and spiritual insights. Yājñavalkya reveals that all dualistic experience depends upon the apparent division between subject and object. Yet this division is only an appearance — dvaitam iva — “as if duality.”

Behind:

• waking,
• dreaming,
• deep sleep,
• perception,
• thought,
• knowledge,
• bondage,
• and liberation

there shines one indivisible self-luminous Consciousness.

That Consciousness is never absent. It is never objectified. It is never born. It never dies.

The enlightened person does not gain Brahman as an object. Rather, the false notion: “I am separate” is destroyed.

Advaita therefore does not ask us to escape life, reject the world, or abolish experience.

It asks us to discover the truth of every experience.

The seer, the seen, and the seeing are appearances in one non-dual Reality.

And therefore the final declaration of Yājñavalkya resounds with unsurpassed profundity: विज्ञातारमरे केन विजानीयात्

“Through what, O dear one, shall the Knower be known?”

ॐ पूर्णमदः पूर्णमिदं पूर्णात्पूर्णमुदच्यते ।

पूर्णस्य पूर्णमादाय पूर्णमेवावशिष्यते ॥

ॐ शान्तिः शान्तिः शान्तिः ॥