I and objects are One...

Shri Atmananda from Spiritual Discourses


I AND OBJECT ARE ONE.
1. Objects are nothing but form, sound, touch, taste or smell. It is evident that any
one of these can never be separated from its respective sense organ, even in
thought. So objects and sense perceptions are one.
Similarly, seeing, hearing etc. can never shine independently of Consciousness.
So, by the same logic, they are Consciousness itself.
Thus objects are only Consciousness; and that is the ‘I’-principle.
2. One directs attention to something. But is it that something that we perceive by the
senses? No. We perceive only the superimpositions of the senses upon that something.
This vague something remains as the substratum of form, sound etc.; and
always remains unknown to the senses or the mind.
But it is that unknown something that we want to know, without any superimposition.
So, no agent like the senses or the generic mind can be utilized, for they can
only superimpose their own objects. The mind always functions conjointly with
the sense organs. In the absence of these agents, neither forms nor thoughts appear.
But using Consciousness to know it, we see it as Consciousness alone, that is to
say as one with the ‘I’-principle.
There is a fundamental difference between the functionings of the agents and of
Consciousness. When the senses and mind function, they have separate objects and
they superimpose these objects upon that something. In the case of Consciousness
strictly viewed, Consciousness has no object of its own. Therefore, when anything
is viewed from the standpoint of Consciousness, superimposition is impossible.