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InHindu philosophy,Sakshi (Sanskrit: साक्षी), alsoSākṣī, "witness," is the'pure awareness' that witnesses all things and events. It witnesses all thoughts, words and deeds without affecting them or being affected by them. It is beyond time and space and the triad of experiencer, experiencing and experienced.Sakshi orShiva (consciousness), along withShakti (will/energy/motion), representsBrahman, the totality itself in its most fundamental state, the almighty and all-pervasive, revealed in ancient Hindu philosophical texts.[1]
Sākṣī means 'observer', 'Witness-Self' or the 'Supreme Being'. It is theAtman, the unchangeable eternal Reality, Pure Consciousness, self-luminous and never itself an object of observation.[2] It is the timeless Being that witnesses the ceaseless flow and change in the world of thought and things.[3]
It lends its shine (Chitchhaya) to the "ego" part of thesubtle body, which consists of the everchanging Mind, the decision-making Intellect, the Memory and the Illusory Ego.[4]
The word साक्षी (sākṣī) is used in the following verse fromShvetashvatara Upanishad,
TheVaraha Upanishad (IV) refers to one of the sevenBhumikas which is of the form ofpranava (Aum orOm). It has four parts (akāra,ukāra,makāra andardhmātra) due to the difference ofsthula (gross),sukshama (subtle),bija (causal) andsakshi (witness). Their correspondingavasthas (states of consciousness) are – waking, dreaming, dream-less sleep, andturiya. The state of consciousness identified with theSakshi essence is 'turiya'.[5]
Panini states that the term indicates a direct seer or eyewitness (Panini Sutras V.ii.91).[6] Sakshi meansIshvara, the चेता (cetā), the sole Self-consciousness, who is the witness of all, who gives consciousness to every human being, thereby making each rational and discriminatory.[7]
Vedanta speaks of mind (chitta), orantahkarana ('internal instrument'), and matter as the subtle and gross forms of one and the same reality. The field of mind (Chittakasha) involves the duality of subject and object, the seer and the seen, the observer (drg) and the observed (drshya); this duality is overcome in the field of pure Consciousness. Such knowledge, saysSankara, does not destroy or create, it only illumines.[2] According to theDrg-drshya-Viveka:
Swami Sarvapriyananda explains it thus:[8]
