196. Sarvajñā
Both Śiva and Devi have this common name of sarvajña meaning knower of everything.
Devi is the witnessed consciousness, Śiva is the witnessing consciousness in everyone, at all possible times, and at all possible places. Hence, they know everything that is happening in the world, whether it is in the waking, dreaming or sleeping states.
Limited knowledge can be obtained through an interface of consciousness, called an instrument of observation and action, or as Upādhi. Unlimited knowledge can be had by removing all possible instruments of observation and action. This is called the Nirupādhika Caitanya. Only in such an unlimited consciousness resides the sum totality of all possible knowledge.
Let me try to visualize a transcendental view of an elephant walking across one's field of vision. Imagine that the mind stores a series of snapshots of the elephant in the field of view of the observer at regular intervals. If we superimpose all of them to be together, then we have several elephants, each one displaced from the other by a small vision all at once. In meditation, such a transcendental view does happen sometimes. The elephant at a distance appears to be small, and the same thing appears big when it is nearby, in reality. So the transcendental view may consist of small and big images of the same objects together. Not only that, if one can spread one's consciousness in different upādhi at the same time and observe a phenomenon transcendentally, there will be rows upon rows, armies of elephants, battalions of them all over the place. All of which, in fact, represent one single elephant. The transcendental view does not eliminate objects, but it multiplies them into infinite fold. What it eliminates is action from the scene. A transcendental view is an invariant object in a higher dimensional vision. A section of it in space or in time exhibits the characteristics of action in flow. Many people, not being able to imagine or experience the transcendental vision, come to the conclusion that it must be null. Hardly so. A better way if describing the reality is that it is full. Hence, the śruti says: “Pūrṇamadaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ”. Full is that and full is this. That refers to the observed Universe and this represents to the observer. Both are full. The observer is full when he expands his consciousness. The Universe is full when it is observed through the eyes of the special Universal consciousness. Both are invariant objects. In fact, they are one and the same.
Source: Śrī Amṛtānandanātha Sarasvatī "Sudhā Syandinī Bhāṣyaṃ" Typed Manuscript
(an incomplete commentary on Lalitā Sahasranāma)
