Part I: Chapter IV / V

Individual Knowledge and Consciousness

Though the ultimate reality is the non-dual spirit, yet determinate knowledge and empirical experience presuppose the existence of:

1. The knower, or the subject that knows apart from the internal organ behind the senses and the object known. The knowing mind is but a reflecting mirror that reflects the luminosity of the atman, in which knowledge grows.
   
   
2. The process of knowledge as determined by modifications in the internal organ: vritis or undulations creating ripples and bubbles in the stream of consciousness. These vritis are of four kinds: the Indeterminate (manas or the mind-stuff), the Determinate (budhi or intelligent will), Self-sense (ahankar or the self-assertive ego), and the Subconscious (chit or the deep and hidden potencies).
   
   
3. The object known through the light of the atman as reflected by the internal organ (antahkaran).