Objectivity

Is a certain criterion of true knowledge or experience that should fulfill three conditions, universality, that is, an experience or knowledge should be available to all for personal verification. Anyone should be able to repeat it in his/her own life. Here we come to the problem of ‘revelation’ in religion. Some religions hold that ‘revelation’ came to some particular individual at a particular time in history, and it cannot be repeated.

Eastern religious traditions hold that the transcendental knowledge that came to the ancient seers, are open to all; it can be experienced by anyone even now, provided he fulfills certain conditions. Swami Vivekananda stated: ‘If there has been one experience in the world in any particular branch of knowledge, it absolutely follows that that experience has been possible millions of times before, and will be repeated many times in the future. Uniformity is the rigorous law of nature; what once happened can happen always.

The teachers of the science of yoga, therefore, declare that religion is not only based on the experience of ancient times, but that no man can be called religious until he has the same experience himself.

What about the ability to communicate subjective experiences?

Ordinary subjective experiences like emotions, imaginations, desires, dreams etc. can be communicated without difficulty. But extraordinary experiences like the spiritual experience of mystics, yogis. Saints and sages are indescribable and cannot be easily communicated through ordinary human language.

How can the nature of Atman (soul, Self), Brahman (God), which transcends the limits of the senses and the mind, be known in the first place and how can that experience be conceptualized and communicated through language? This shows that consciousness and knowledge do not mean the same.

Then what is the connection between consciousness and knowledge?

To answer this question, we must take up the study of consciousness and that of the superconscious state as any other science. With respect to reason we must have to lay our foundation. We must follow reason as far as it leads, and when reason fails, reason itself will show us the way to the highest plane. This approach is somewhat different form the Western formal approach, which begins with any set of axiomatic premise and then argues some logical conclusion.

Note that Shankara and other Vedantic teachers also reject inferential reasoning as inadequate in dealing with transcendental truths.