Self-Enquiry
By Ramana Maharshi


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QUESTION 15

Disciple: The mind, sense-organs, etc., have the ability to perceive; yet why are they regarded as perceived objects?


Master:



Drik (knower) Drisya (known object)

1. The seer Pot (i e. the seen object)

Further

2. The eye organ Body, pot, etc.

3. The sense of sight The eye organ

4. The mind The sense of sight

5. The individual soul The mind

6. Consciousness (the Self) The individual soul


As shown in the above scheme, since we, the consciousness, know all objects, we are said to be drik (knower). The categories ending with pot are the objects seen, since they are what are known. In the table of 'knowledge: ignorance (i.e. knower-known)' given above, among the knowers and objects of knowledge, it is seen that one is knower in relation to another; yet, since that one is object in relation to another, none of those categories is, in reality, the knower. Although we are said to be the 'knower' because we know all, and not the 'known' because we are not known by anything else, we are said to be the 'knower' only in relation to the known objects. In truth, however, what is called the 'known' is not apart from us. And so we are the Reality that transcends those two (the knower and the known). All the others fall within the knower-known categories.