The five kinds of conscience

Viveka or conscience is a special kind of vichar or deliberation that is the endeavour to select a particular idea from several ideas. When you finally make your decision it is called siddhanta or conclusion. Conscience is defined as a special type of deliberation, broader in connotation than that of viveka. Viveka is where there is a conscious endeavour to decide in favour of shreya or benevolence when confronted with the two opposing ideas of shreya and preya or malevolence. Viveka is of five types, and their collective name is viveka panchak. The first type is nityantya viveka, discrimination between permanent and impermanent and an intelligent person discerns these two aspects. The attempt to accept the permanent aspect after due deliberation is called nityainitya viveka. It is not dependent on the relative factors of time, space and person, whereas the impermanent is the collectivity of relative factors. The best way to recognise the impermanent is that if one of the three relative factors is changed it will undergo an immediate transformation. Nityanitya viveka enables us to realise the necessity of observing dharma and to understand the fundamental differences between dharma and religion or doctrine. The goal of dharma is the attainment of Brahmn; its base and its movement are Brahmn-centered. Brahmn sadhana, therefore, is sadhana for the attainment of the permanent entity. Through nityanitya viveka try to understand what is permanent and what is impermanent. This is an inseparable part of the practice of dharma. The second type of viveka panchak is dvait-advait viveka, the capacity to analyse whether the eternal entity is one or more than one and come to a conclusion accordingly. Dvaita means dualistic and advaita means non-dualistic. For success in spiritual practice both nityanitya and dvaitadvaita viveka are indispensable. The third type of conscience is atmanatma viveka, self and non-self conscience. Its role is to analyse whether the permanent, non-dualistic Entity is Consciousness or non-consciousness. Everything in this universe is a metamorphosed form of Consciousness. It is only with the help of atmanatma viveka that we can move towards universalism and realise that Brahmn is the Eternal Singular Entity, Pure Consciousness. The fourth type of conscience is panchakosha viveka, five layers of existence or mind. With this we can discern separate layers, and find that Consciousness is above all five layers of existence. Spiritual sadhana means ideation on one's own consciousness beyond these koshas and not ideation on any of the koshas themselves. Mahavakya viveka, the fifth stage of Conscience, follows from the other four. The first four help a sadhaka realise that the Eternal Entity, Brahmn, is One without a second, Consciousness personified, and the knower of the five koshas. Mahavakya viveka teaches us that He is not attainable through mere knowledge. To liberate consciousness from the five koshas, action and devotion are required. By cultivating the first four types of conscience a person of knowledge may become established in mahavakya viveka. The realisation comes that knowledge already acquired is not true knowledge because it leads to vanity. Together with selfless service and questioning, complete surrender is also essential. Hence it is said that the five types of conscience attain their consummation through jnana yoga, karma yoga and bhakti yoga. Devotion is the most valuable treasure because it supplies endless vitality.