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K. C. BHATTACHARYYA
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standing of a content "as symbolised by an objectively contemplated meaning" (II 113). It is not mere consciousness of reality but is reality (II 114). Its content is neither the interior of the body (which is fact) nor the mental (which is self-subsistent object) but I, spoken as though it were an object but understood as what object is not, as the speaking subjectivity (II 113). . Spiritual (unlike psychological) introspection involves the explicit consciousness of being what is spoken-1. The subject, however, is not enjoyed alone. Something else is always enjoyed along with, and in reference to, the subject. There may be consciousness of the subject as embodied, or consciousness of personal relation to other selves, or consciousness of the over-personal self related to I by identity in difference—a relation unintelligible in the objective attitude (II 114). This religious experience is not of I as symbolized by something but of the over-personal reality as symbolized by 1. Symbolizing by I is a non-theoretic experience of self-negation, not consciousness of yourself as nothing but consciously being nothing. "What emerges to theoretic religious consciousness" is the over-personal reality alone, "the enjoyed fulness of being” which transcends both objectivity and subjectivity (II 115).
Taking a dialectical glance downward at this point of the ascent, Bhattacharyya notes that individual religious experiences are different, not to be systematized by secular reason, but presenting themselves in alternative systems. Each generates its own philosophy of religion, metaphysics, and logic (differences in logical theory being ultimately religious differences). Philosophy is systematic symbolism, which necessarily admits of alternatives, so "there is no question of philosophy progressing towards a single unanimously acceptable solution" (II 115).
(4) Transcendental thought has for its content neither fact (things) nor self-subsistent object (universals) nor reality (individual self) but absolute Truth. In the spiritual thought of religion the subject negates itself enjoyingly, not theoretically, but this involves theoretic consciousness of the possibility of the individual self's being unreal. “The denial of the I is possible because we already believe that the absolute is” (II 115). The Absolute, not to be confused with the overpersonal reality, is meant negatively as what the subject I is not, understood negatively but believed positively. Whereas the over-personal reality is symbolized as I and expressed literally as a self, Truth is symbolized as not-I and so not reality, not to be enjoyed, and not literally expressible at all. Unlike literally speakable reality, which is revealed by being spoken, Truth, "being spoken as what the speaking I is not,” is self-revealing (II 116). Far from being identical with
