What is consciousness? Generally consciousness is taken to be illumination; either of something outside itself or of itself or both. But Bhartrahari points out that illumination of content does not allow us to discriminate that content. Mere illumination is blind, deaf and dumb. Real illumination involves discursivity; the ability to discriminate a content of consciousness from everything else and in every movement of consciousness we always note there is some discriminatory capacity. Even when we are walking and our mind is elsewhere we are not explicitly conscious of the ground we are walking on but even then there is some discrimination occurring because in a way I know what kind of ground I am walking on and I can note any significant change in it that may occur suddenly. So there is no state of consciousness without discursivity and hence illumination of consciousness is intertwined with Vak (speech). However Vak if understood as audible sound then the proposition is manifes...
In the following passage, we find JK linking thought, identification and possessiveness, the sense of me-mine that is at the root of all conflict: “It is thought that is breeding violence — my house, my property, my wife, my husband, my country, my God, my belief, which is utter nonsense. Who is doing this, creating this everlasting ‘me’ opposed to the rest? Who is doing it? Education, society, the establishment, the church are all doing it, because I am part of all that.” “Thought must inevitably divide; look what has happened. Thought says ‘Nationalism is pretty rotten, it has led to all kinds of war and mischief, let us have brotherhood, let us be united’. So thought forms a league of nations or United Nations, but thought is still operating separatively and maintaining separation: you who are an Italian, you keep your Italian sovereignty and so on. Talk about brotherhood and yet keep separate, which is hypocrisy; that is a function of thought to play double games with itself....