The Witness (Sākṣin)
The silent awareness that lights up every experience yet acts in none and is touched by none.
The sākṣin is the 'witness' — the self regarded purely as the silent awareness in which all experience appears. It sees the mind's thoughts, the senses' reports, even the states of waking, dream, and deep sleep, yet it does none of these things and is altered by none of them, like a lamp that lights a room without being involved in what goes on there. Recognizing oneself as this untouched witness, rather than as the busy mind it illumines, is central to the Vedāntic and yogic analysis of the self.
How it traveled
- Bṛhadāraṇyaka UpaniṣadMithilā (kingdom of Videha) · -700explains
- UpadeśasāhasrīKālaḍi (Kaladi) · 710explains
- VivekacūḍāmaṇiŚṛṅgeri (Sringeri) · 1400explains
Key passages(15)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Vivekacūḍāmaṇi · Śaṅkara (traditionally ascribed; authorship doubted)
Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
Ushasta Kakrayana said: 'As one might say, this is a cow, this is a horse, thus has this been explained by thee. Tell me the Brahman which is visible, not invisible, the Self, who is within all.' Yagn
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Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad · Vedic Revelation (śruti)
'That Brahman,' O Gargi, 'is unseen, but seeing; unheard, but hearing; unperceived, but perceiving; unknown, but knowing. There is nothing that sees but it, nothing that hears but it, nothing that per
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He is the one God, hidden in all beings, all-pervading, the self within all beings, watching over all works, dwelling in all beings, the witness, the perceiver , the only one, free from qualities.
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And the Supreme Purusha in this body is also called the Looker-on, the Permitter, the Supporter, the Experiencer, the Great Lord, and the Highest Self.
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As the sun, the eye of the whole world, is not contaminated by the external impurities seen by the eyes, thus the one Self within all things is never contaminated by the misery of the world, being him
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For he it is who sees, hears, smells, tastes, perceives, conceives, acts, he whose essence is knowledge, the person, and he dwells in the highest, indestructible Self,—
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