The Observer and the Witness Paradox

Dear friends,

Evolution in the spiritual field is a simple question of being versus non-being. The distinction between the two is clear, but there is a vast spectrum in between. It is both joy and duty to move toward the subtler side of this spectrum, becoming less and less, and culminating in an ever- deepening state of utmost humility. This should be the only trajectory in our lives. Let us explore the beauty and paramount significance that humility has in our life. While exploring this quality, let us also be aware of its opposite, which is arrogance, so that we may avoid it at any cost.

In the state of God realization, who realizes God? The true state only emerges when nobody remains. When there is nobody to observe, experience, or realize God, we say that there is God realization. That is the sacred conundrum. To those bound by ego and filled with inner complexity, God appears remote. The nature of such a consciousness will obscure Divinity, to various extents. A grosser effect will always supersede the subtler one, and is there anything subtler than God?

Imagine: in a room filled with the stink of garbage, can you enjoy the sweet fragrance of a jasmine flower? Rather, the flower’s subtle scent will be overpowered and become imperceptible. Similarly, our grosser states veil the divine fragrance, and we fail to become cognizant. And so perfect observation requires that the observer be subtler than the observed object. Otherwise, the observer tends to obscure the object under observation. That is why Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle baffles the scientific world, since what is being deployed to measure the speed or the position of an electron is not as subtle as the electron! The observer must be subtler than the observed.

In the field of quantum science, the observer effect is well known. We can understand it by examining the double slit experiment.

What is a double slit experiment? First, imagine a wall that has two slits cut into it. Now, imagine shooting a gun at that wall. Some of the bullets hit the wall and ricochet off it. Others travel through the slits and hit a second wall that is positioned just behind the first one. If you observe the second wall at every place where a bullet has struck, you will see two strips of holes, just like the two slits in the first wall.

Now, instead of shooting bullets through the slits, imagine shining light at the wall with the two slits. Observing the back wall, you might expect to see two beams of light. But while bullets behave like particles, light behaves as a wave. When the wave of light passes through the two slits, it splits into two new waves, just as water would. Those two waves now spread out and interfere with one another. This creates a pattern on the back wall, which is known as an interference pattern.

Now, instead of shining a light at the wall with two slits, what happens when we fire electrons at it? Just like light, the electrons produce an interference pattern on the back wall.

At this point in the experiment, a team of researchers did something clever. They decided to shoot the electrons individually, so as to ensure that they could not interfere with one another. The expectation was that they would now produce a bullet pattern on the back wall, instead of an interference pattern.

But something surprising occurred. At first, the pattern on the back wall looked like the bullet pattern, as expected. However, as they shot more and more electrons, the marks started accumulating, and over time, these accumulated marks started taking the overall shape of an interference pattern, just like light. Now, the researchers were baffled. If you are only working with one electron at a time, how can there be any interference? Could it be that a single electron is splitting itself, passing through both slits at once, and interfering with itself? The researchers did not know. So they decided to observe each electron as it passed through the slits. They set up a monitor that would alert them whenever an electron passed through. Then they would know if it passed through one slit at one time, or both at once.

What happened? The electrons immediately stopped behaving as a wave and started behaving as particles, producing the bullet pattern. Why did this happen? Could the very presence of an observer somehow affect the outcome of the experiment?                      
 

No, it was not the mere the presence of an observer that altered the experiment. An observer is never a mere presence. Observation is an act, and so an observer is one who acts, interferes, and changes things. That is the effect of observation. 

In this case, the researchers influenced the electrons’ behavior by attempting to observe them. How can you observe something as small as an electron? If you were to shine light on an electron, the light photons would act like cannonballs, knocking the electrons from their trajectory and altering their behavior. That is exactly what happened. To observe the electrons in action, the researchers had to shoot particles at them, thus changing their behavior. By introducing a grosser particle into a subtle waveform, the researchers collapsed the very waveform they intended to study. The observers interfered with the observed object, thereby changing the results of the experiment and creating a grosser effect.

The observer effect is universally applicable. What happens when we notice spiritual work happening within us? Do we simply allow it to happen, or does our observation interfere with it in some way? A judgmental attitude based upon likes and dislikes causes us to react to the subtler state that is being created within us. Here, the Master is infusing us with a state of refined subtlety, but our grosser reaction to that work is creating another state alongside it. What is the result? It is a mixed state, which is subtler in many ways, but which is still gross in others.

A materialistic consciousness will also seek to convert subtler experiences into denser ones, just as the grosser particle changes wave behavior into particle behavior. Someone who is so attached to the physical Master, known as a guru pashu, only wishes to observe Divinity with open eyes—to have physical darshan. This destroys the subtle inner state that has been given; a state so sublime and perfect and pure. Preferring form to formlessness, they are unable to actually benefit from the guru’s physical presence that they enjoy so much.

Due to our tendency to interfere with the work, Babuji Maharaj liked to work upon abhyasis at night as they slept. When they were unaware of the work that was taking place, they did not interfere, and the results would tend closer toward perfection. In such cases, though, an abhyasi would also miss out in a way on the taste of the actual work!

If such modifications can happen within one person's mind, imagine what can happen when a second observer is brought into the equation. When we receive a sitting from a trainer, for example, there are now two observers at play instead of one, and the possibility of interference increases.

However, whether we are receiving a sitting or giving one, or we simply notice some spiritual work happening during the course of our day, if we open our hearts and surrender at that moment in all humility and gratitude, without judging or thinking of likes and dislikes, his work will always prevail. Then, we move from the state of an involved observer to that of a mere witness!

Remaining attached to outcomes and running behind likes and dislikes creates interference. In our relationships, the mutual interference that takes place can be extremely complex, and its results are unpredictable. We cannot say what the effect will be, or why. All we can say is that the observer changes the outcome, and that multiple observers create complex outcomes. For instance, suppose you remember your friend and think, “I wonder how they’re doing.” You decide to find out by paying them a surprise visit. Meanwhile, your friend is sitting at home, depressed. Something has gone wrong in that person's life. You knock on the door, and when your friend opens it, a big smile appears on their face.

“How are you doing?” you ask.

“Oh, I’m just great!”

Before you knocked on the door, they were depressed! To a certain extent, your investigation has changed their state. Your presence has cheered them up, at least superficially, but that also means you have been unable to truly assess them. As the observer, you have changed the observed, thus compromising the observation.

And though you have lifted up your friend's spirits for the time being, have you solved their problem? After you leave, they may return to their previous state of depression. In that sense, your presence will have only obscured their emotional state.

But what if your friend opens up and the truth comes flowing out? They make you understand everything, and as a result you now become emotionally affected. You feel empathy and sympathy. You may even feel saddened. Now, the observed person becomes a catalyst, changing the state of the observer; changing your state. Perhaps because of your compassion, because your heart is overflowing with love for that person, you now decide to advise your friend how to remedy their situation. But that advice is not welcomed.

Most of the time, people do not actually take advice. Even if they do, it often creates unintended consequences. Rather than making a person happier, it often causes them to rebel and even feel negatively toward the giver. For example, you may give your friend a brilliant business idea that ends up making them a billionaire, yet something inside that person will always be unhappy that it came from you rather than from themselves. Therefore, Lalaji Maharaj said, “Never offer advice unless invited, otherwise it is likely to yield bad results. If you find any fault with anybody, pray for his freedom from it” Even in cases where advice is actively solicited, it is best to pause and consider before you offer it.

Misunderstanding also does not require that you say anything. What happens when you look at someone with so much love, but due to their biases they think that your glance is negative? Observing this reaction, you feel hurt and lash out. Now you are both contributing to the deterioration of the relationship.

Here, we must understand two things: The first is that we cannot predict how others will react to us, and the second is that we cannot prevent their reactions. Others will always react, and we need to remember this and be understanding, rather than taking it personally. But more importantly, we can withdraw ourselves from the equation altogether. This does not mean that we lead a life of solitude, but refers instead to an inner state. Kabir’s couplet is as applicable to human relationships as it is to our relationship with the Divine. As observers, we are always involved. It is our likes and dislikes that draw our observation in the first place, and based on those likes and dislikes, we react, judge, and interfere. The state of observation is never passive or receptive, but goal-oriented. Like a tiger stalking its prey, the observing mind seeks an outcome. Observation is an imposition of action. It is a kind of violence. The observational mind can never be passive or disinterested. It cannot be a mere witness.

Per contra, witnessing is passive. As a witness, you are not a participant. You are not involved. You have no interest to observe, yet you have no choice but to witness. When you witness and become a void within yourself, you will not interfere with things, and so you will not create samskaras in yourself or in others. Humility at its pinnacle creates this zero-ness, this void state within you—a pure non-interfering state where you reflect only your inner absentia, not expecting or imposing anything.

The witness may still experience thoughts, but does not judge them or fight with them. There may still be chaos all around, but the witness is disinterested, and does not react to these inputs. To the witness, they are like the clouds that merely pass us by. Who is this witness? It is not the mind. The mind is incapable of witnessing. Lord Krishna reveals the mystery:

The Supreme Purusha in this body is also called the Witness, the One who permits, the Supporter, the One who experiences, the Great Lord and the Supreme Self.    
 

— Bhagavad Gita, chapter 13, verse 22

If I too can become a witness—witnessing my own actions, intentions, thoughts, likes, and dislikes—then I will also be in resonance with that inner dweller. Rather, it is that inner dweller, the soul, who witnesses. Mind-consciousness creates the observer, but consciousness of the soul creates the witness. In mind-consciousness, we continue to create complexity, entertaining likes and dislikes and deepening our samskaras. Just as the entire creation is maintained and supported by the Ultimate Being, the observing mind supports and maintains what Babuji refers to as our own tiny creations—complexity, likes and dislikes, desires, samskaras. We feed them with our mental attention, thus empowering them. In the witness state of the soul, however, our mental power and support is automatically withdrawn. No longer are we involved with this minute creation, and so it simply withers away. Our absence now has the fragrance of uparati, or self-withdrawal.

The stage may also come when, as a witness, you are so absorbed that there is no entity left behind to witness anything. Having gone beyond the witness state and into the state of non-being, you somehow resonate with the original state (to the extent of what is allowable by your samskaras). Here, you can reflect the condition described by Babuji as ‘living dead. You may also move further, from superficial non-being to absolute non-being, which would be the culmination of humility. From non-being comes non-action, meaning that you act without being the author of that action. Now, you simply allow things to happen as they should happen. Completely absorbed in the Absolute, action is performed automatically. It happens through you and yet without you. In non-being you are in resonance with the Absolute.

When we have lost all sense of our own significance, and are devoid of ego-consciousness in any form, direct or indirect, then whatever we do will be just what we ought to be doing. This condition, if bestowed by God, is the best of all conditions.Everyone ought to try to arrive at it.    
 

——Shn Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh

From observer to witness to non-entity; that is the progression. It is also possible to move in the opposite trajectory. Even the disinterested witness can be subject to reversal. For example, if the witness one day finds enjoyment in a witnessed object, and further develops liking and desire for it, they slip again into the observational field. This downward movement can continue even beyond the observing state, leading to a degraded condition where imposition and doer-ship lead to pride and even arrogance. To have pride in your acts represents a certain level of ego, but to arrogantly think that only you can perform them is to cross a new limit. To become arrogant is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

Air moves automatically from a high-pressure zone to a low-pressure zone. For our hearts to become receptive, we would therefore need to make them into low-pressure zones. Humility is the key to creating this low-pressure zone in the heart, while arrogance is the sign of having a high-pressure zone within. Humility will attract more noble traits in its turn while arrogance will rob us of our basic humanity plus the greater loss of regaining Divine Apotheosis.

If we entertain the dream of enlightenment, can we afford to remain hiding in darkness, with thoughts, actions and attitudes that are incompatible? That would be like having a car with two engines, each powering the vehicle in an opposite direction. Where will such a vehicle go? Ultimately we would end up in a kind of ‘fall, where the spiritual pilgrim transforms into a slave of desires, samskaras, and ego—a situation in which no free will can prevail. How can free will be present in a person who has completely succumbed to their complexities? In the absence of free will, seekers find themselves completely tied up by their two legs. Yet, that does not mean that they remain stationary. Rather, they go down, pulled by the inner accumulation that they have allowed to clutter their hearts. In various religions, this downward spin would be recognized as living in hell—hell being the trajectory traced out by those who are too heavy to move in any other manner.

Humility is the cardinal quality worth cultivating. Developing it is a matter of crying your heart out to the great Master in a moment of bare truth: “I need your help, Master. Make me humble, make me your true servant” Imagine what would happen if every moment became such a moment of truth in our lives—a moment where we throw ourselves upon the holy lap of the Lord in total dependency and humility. Only when we submit in such a manner will the heart truly melt. Only then will its contents rush out, with only a vacuum remaining; a vacuum that will immediately attract grace. Each time we pour our heart out and create such a vacuum— which is even less than a low-pressure zone—His greatness will descend again and again. That is why it is said that humility attracts so many other noble qualities in turn.

With this approach, the Lord will capture our heart permanently. Then, we will not have to convince ourselves through feelings, experiences and conditions, saying, “Now I feel his presence.” Now He resides in the heart. How? Because T’ no longer exist. In this game, I am nobody. When he is everything and I am nothing, where is the struggle? The riddle has been solved.

When God is the absolute witness, witnessing His creation, and the Master is working as a witness, and the pilgrim is on his pilgrimage witnessing the journey, I am sure that the path itself will become the witnessing pilgrim’s destination in life.                      
 

With love and respect, 

Kamlesh Patel

Kanha Shanti Vanam,10 February 2019,

on the occasion of the 146th birth anniversary of Pujya Shri Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh.                     
 

It is essential for us to remain His insignificant devotees.We should bow our heads with politeness, gratitude and sincevtty at His shrine. There 1s safety in that.  
 

—Shri Ram Chandra of Fatehgarh