Drushya, Darshak and Drashta : The Three Modes of Our Existence

Life in general is full of diversity. If we observe people around us, there is so much diversity in terms of what we do and how we do it. Some people believe in earning riches for themselves while some get peace by sharing their riches with others. Some choose the path of accumulation while some choose the path of sharing. While we might do whatever we do for different reasons, we essentially exist in two modes: Drushya, the one who is seen and Darshak, the one who sees.

Let us try to simplify this. Take an example of a little three year old child. For most of the times, the child is a Darshak. It likes to watch others. It could spend hours watching cartoons, animated videos, birds and animals around, etc. After some time, the child enters the other mode; it gets an urge to be a Drushya. It would like people to look at it. Children cry to get attention. They often become cranky just to attract others’ attention to them. Most of the times, the child is jumping between these two states.

In fact, this is true for all of us. We are putting up so much of content on social media. Why? Because we like to be seen; we have inner urge to be a Drushya. All our accumulation is rooted in our urge to be a drushya. Quite a lot of times, we help others so that more people look up to us, they talk about us. For example, the politicians, actors, performers love to be Drushya. They want to be seen by people. They want to be talked about.

To be a Drushya, one needs a lot of doing on one’s part. Being Darshak is comparatively very simple. That’s why, most of the people love to be Darshaks. Why is Netflix so popular? Why video content is becoming so much popular? It helps us forget ourselves. We choose to be darshak when we want an escape from ourselves.

There is one more state, which we rarely experience. The third state of being is Drashta. Who is a Drashta? In his commentaries on Ashtavakra Mahageeta, Osho very beautifully explains – When Darshak becomes your Drushya, your state is that of a Drashta. This needs a little elaboration.

Who is the watcher within us? Can we watch that watcher?

Ashtavakra calls this state Drashta which simply means being a witness. When we witness ourselves in different situations and mind states (like angry, greedy, afraid, etc.) we realise that the Drashta or witness within us is free of all these states. These states merely come and pass by; we (can) remain untouched by them.

Kabir calls this Drashta as ‘Ram’. Whenever Kabir mentions Ram in his works, he is not talking about the mythological Ram. He is talking about the Ram (Ramyate iti Ram – the one who is engrossed is Ram) inside us who is wrongly identifying himself with the moods and situations through which the mind goes.

Tibetan saint Tilopa describes Drashta as the one who looks at thoughts in the mind like clouds in the sky. Clouds just pass through the sky; they cannot colour it. In same way, our mental states just come and go and we can remain untouched by them.

When we are either Drushya or Darhsak, suffering is inevitable. When we are Drashta, peace is a possibility.


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