God is pure Consciousness – the true Self of all beings and the eternal witness of the mind. Formless and all-pervasive, He is the Source from which all creation arises, yet He also appears as every name and form. Everything that exists manifests through His consciousness and power. He alone is the one conscious Self dwelling in all.

Knowledge of the external world becomes the root of suffering when it enters the mind and we identify with it. Bondage begins when we mistake ourselves as the body, its roles, titles, and conditions, and as the thoughts, emotions, memories, and concepts that arise within the mind. Through this identification with the gross physical body and the subtle mental world, we become estranged from our true nature – pure consciousness. From this false identification arises ego, the notions of “I” and “mine,” and the endless cycle of attachment, fear, and sorrow.

The stream of letters, words, thoughts, and feelings that continually arises in the mind gives rise to the three impurities: the sense of limitation, the perception of differences, and the identification with the actor. These impurities contract consciousness and create the illusion of imperfection, separation, and bondage. They bind us to incompleteness, duality and to the fruits of both virtuous and harmful actions. Forgetting that we are the one eternal Self, we experience ourselves as fragmented, finite individuals, entangled in the movements of the mind and the world. This is the condition of worldliness.

The highest purpose of human life is to remain established in the constant awareness of the inner Self, one with God. This is accomplished by infusing the mind with the transcendental state through meditation until the witness consciousness shines forth effortlessly. As the mind becomes still, we cease identifying with its movements and abide as the silent witness, tasting the bliss of pure awareness.

In that state, God – the true Self of all – alone witnesses the waking, dreaming, and deep sleep states. As the eternal spectator, the witness-Self observes all action and inaction without ever becoming identified with the changing experiences of the three states.

It is God, the Supreme Lord and the true Self of all beings, who alone is this witness. There is but one Consciousness, and That alone is awareness, intelligence, power, and bliss. Infinite Consciousness has manifested as the entire universe for the expansion of bliss and the revelation of supreme knowledge. The seer and the seen are not two; they are the one Supreme Consciousness.