Fw: Hunting the 'I', 6: Maya or the snake in the rope

[Guest guest]

- Gabriele Ebert

SriArunachala ; RamanaMaharshi

Friday, October 04, 2002 11:52 PM

Hunting the 'I', 6: Maya or the snake in the rope

Ramana Maharshi supported Sri Sankara and the

Advaita-system:

"The tantriks and others of the kind condemn Sri

Sankara's philosopy as Maya-path without understanding

him aright. What does he say? He says:

(1) Brahman is real;

(2) the universe is a myth;

(3) Brahman is the universe.

He does not stop at the second statement but continues

to supplement it with the third. What does it signify?

The universe is conceived to be apart from Brahman, and

that perception is wrong. The antagonists point to his

illustration of 'the snake in the rope'. In dim light one can

think a coiled rope to be a snake. This is unconditioned

superimposition. After the truth of the rope is known,

the illusion of the snake is removed once and for all.

But they should also take into account the conditioned

superimposition, i.e., 'the water in the mirage'.

The mirage does not disappear even after we know it to be

a mirage. The vision is there, but the man does not run to

it for water. Sri Sankara must be understood in the light

of both these illustrations. The world is a myth. Even after

knowing it, it continues to appear. It must be known to be

Brahman and not apart.

.... (from Talk 315)

....

He [sri Ramana] simply states what he sees and that is

the same as Sankara and the ancient Rishis had seen and

which everybody will see who follows his Path up to the end.

That behind the appearance of the forms is the true nature

of the world as Brahman. However, all their explanation and

deductions cannot prove their vision, as long as he who

doubts cannot see what they see.

And he cannot see it as long as both of them use different

ways of perceiving. No logical.. philosophical... demonstration

can prove what the realized one sees:

That the Self is not only his true nature, but also that of the

world. And he perceives it as distinctly as 'a fruit on the palm

of his hand'.

That was the reason, why Ramana Maharshi used to divert

the conversation as soon as it was convenient, when it had

turned to Maya. Actually the problem, Maya, is no problem

at all, being no obstruction in the Path.

When Suka, the son of the sage Vyasa, realized the Self,

he did not believe either himself or his father, who confirmed

his achievement, because he felt that he had not yet solved

the riddle of the world as Maya. Thus his father sent him to

Janaka, the royal sage.

King Janaka put him to several tests, which the youthful Suka

passed in the calm and composed way of a real sage.

Accordingly King Janaka confirmed his Self-realisation. Suka

remonstrated: 'But there is still the problem of Maya ...'

King Janaka smiled. "Drop it!"

The same moment Suka 'saw' that the Truth of the world was

the same as his own Truth.

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Lucy Cornelssen: Hunting the 'I', from pp 55-58

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