Srikant, who lives in Pune, India, asks, "I understand that all living things have an underlying consciousness. These living things are made up of billions of living cells. Do all these cells have their own consciousness? If so, is the consciousness we experience the result of their combined consciousness?" Q&A series #23
Advaita Vedanta says that consciousness is formless and limitless, pervading the universe and present in everything, including animals, insects, plants, cells, and even rocks. If that's so, are cells conscious beings? Are rocks?
All the cells in your body, including the neurons in your brain, are physical things. Each has a particular shape, size, location, and so on. But what about your thoughts, emotions, and sensations? They have no size, weight, or location because they're not physical things. They're non-physical things, mental things. Those non-physical, mental objects were described by the rishis of ancient India as being sukshma or subtle, that is, not a perceptible material or substance.
There's a CPU inside the device you're using right now to watch this video. When the CPU retrieves the particular data that represents my image or the sound of my voice, it displays the image for you to see, and plays the sound for you to hear. But, the CPU doesn't see me or hear me like you do. The CPU has no thoughts, emotions, or perceptions; it only has data, ones and zeros, binary information. You, on the other hand, have a powerful mind in which the my image and sound of my voice are experienced by you right now. When those images and sounds arise in your in your mind, they become known to you. You become conscious or aware of them because, fundamentally speaking, you are a sentient conscious being, a conscious being who knows or observes all the activities of your mind.
The ancient rishis discovered that a single, undivided, limitless consciousness is simultaneously present in every living being, becoming manifest or reflected in the minds of those beings. So, consciousness is present everywhere, all the time, including in animals, insects, plants and cells. For this reason, consciousness is equally present in you and in an amoeba. What makes you so different is the fact that you have a complex, powerful mind, and the amoeba doesn’t.
Swami Tadatmananda is a traditionally-trained teacher of Advaita Vedanta, meditation, and Sanskrit. For more information, please see: www.arshabodha.org/