Advaita Bhoda Deepika #3

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End of post #2...

 

D.: What is Maya?

 

35. M.: It is the ignorance about the aforesaid Brahman.

D.: What is this Ignorance?

M.: Though the Self is Brahman, there is not the knowledge

of the Self (being Brahman). That which obstructs this knowledge

of the Self is Ignorance.

D.: How can this project the world?

M.: Just as ignorance of the substratum, namely the rope,

projects the illusion of a snake, so Ignorance of Brahman projects

this world.

 

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

pp7-13

 

36. M.: It must be regarded an illusion because it is

superimposed and does not exist either before (perception) or

after (knowledge).

D.: How can it be said that it does not exist either before

(perception) or after (knowledge)?

M.: In order to be created, it could not have been before

creation (i.e. it comes into existence simultaneously with or

after creation); in dissolution it cannot exist; now in the interval

it simply appears like a magic-born city in mid air. Inasmuch as

it is not seen in deep sleep, shocks and Samadhi, it follows that

even now it is only a super imposition and therefore an illusion.

 

37. D.: Before creation and in dissolution if there is no

world, what can exist then?

M.: There is only the basic Existence, not fictitious, nondual,

undifferentiated, ab extra and ab intra (Sajatiya, vijatiya,

and svagata bheda), Being-Knowledge-Bliss, the unchanging

Reality.

D.: How is it known?

M.: The Vedas say "Before creation there was only Pure

Being." Yoga Vasishta also helps us to understand it.

D.: How?

 

38. M.: "In dissolution the whole universe is withdrawn

leaving only the Single Reality which stays motionless, beyond

speech and thought, neither darkness nor light, yet perfect,

namely, untellable, but not void," says Yoga Vasishta.

 

39. D.: In such Non duality how can the universe arise?

M.: Just as in the aforesaid rope snake, the ignorance of

the real substratum lies hidden in the rope, so also in the basic

Reality there lies hidden Ignorance otherwise called Maya or

Avidya. Later this gives rise to all these names and forms.

 

40-41. This maya which is dependent on the unrelated

Knowledge-Bliss-Reality, has the two aspects of veiling and

projection (avarna and vikshepa); by the former it hides its

own substratum from view, and by the latter the unmanifest

maya is made manifest as mind. This then sports with its

latencies which amounts to projecting this universe with all

the names and forms.

 

42. D.: Has anyone else said this before?

M.: Yes, Vasishta to Rama.

D.: How?

 

43-50. M.: "The powers of Brahman are infinite. Among

them that power becomes manifest through which it shines

forth."

D.: What are those different powers?

M.: Sentience in sentient beings; movement in air;

solidity in earth; fluidity in water; heat in fire; void in the

ether; decaying tendency in the perishable; and many more

are well known. These qualities remained unmanifest and

later manifested themselves. They must have been latent in

the non-dual Brahman like the glorious colours of peacock

feathers in the yolk of its egg or the spread out banyan tree

in the tiny seed.

D.: If all powers lay latent in the Single Brahman why did

they not manifest simultaneously ?

M.: Look how the seeds of trees, plants, herbs, creepers,

etc. are all contained in the earth but only some of them

sprout forth according to the soil, climate and season. So

also the nature and extent of powers for manifestation are

determined by conditions. At the time Brahman (the

substratum of all the powers of Maya), joins the power of

thinking, this power manifests as mind. Thus Maya so long

dormant suddenly starts forth as mind from the Supreme

Brahman, the common source of all. Then this mind fashions

all the universe. So says Vasishta.

 

51. D.: What is the nature of this mind which forms the

power of projection of Maya?

M.: To recollect ideas or latencies is its nature. It has latencies

as its content and appears in the witnessing consciousness in

two modes - "I" and "This".

D.: What are these modes?

M.: They are the concept "I" and the concepts "this",

"that", etc.

 

52. D.: How is this I-mode superimposed on the witnessing

consciousness ?

M.: Just as silver superimposed on nacre presents the nacre

as silver, so also the I-mode on the basic witness presents it as

"I", i.e. the ego, as if the witness were not different from the

ego but were the ego itself.

 

53. Just as a person possessed by a spirit is deluded and

behaves as altogether a different person, so also the witness

possessed by the I-mode forgets its true nature and presents

itself as the ego.

 

54. D.: How can the unchanging witness mistake itself for

the changing ego?

M.: Like a man in delirium feeling himself lifted in air, or

a drunken man beside himself, or a madman raving

incoherently, or a dreamer going on dream-journeys, or a man

possessed behaving in strange ways, the witness though itself

untainted and unchanged, yet under the malicious influence of

the phantom ego, appears changed as "I".

 

55. D.: Does the I-mode of mind present the witness altered

as the ego, or itself appear modified as the ego in the witness?

 

56-57. M.: Now this question cannot arise, for having no

existence apart from the Self, it cannot manifest of itself.

Therefore it must present the Self as if modified into the ego.

D.: Please explain it more.

M.: Just as the ignorance factor in the rope cannot project

itself as snake but must make the rope look like a snake; that in

water unable to manifest itself, makes the water manifest as

foam, bubbles and waves; that in fire, itself unable, makes the

fire display itself as sparks; that in clay cannot present itself but

presents the clay as a pot, so also the power in the witness cannot

manifest itself but presents the witness as the ego.

 

58-60. D.: Master, how can it be said that through maya

the Self is fragmented into individual egos? The Self is not related

to anything else; it remains untainted and unchanged like ether.

How can maya affect it? Is it not as absurd to speak of

fragmentation of the Self as to say "I saw a man taking hold of

ether and moulding it into a man; or fashioning air into a cask?"

I am now sunk in the ocean of samsara. Please rescue me.

 

61. M.: Maya is called Maya because it can make the

impossible possible. It is the power which brings into view what

was not always there, like a magician making his audience see a

celestial city in mid air. If a man can do this, can maya not do

that? There is nothing absurd in it.

 

62-66. D.: Please make it clear to me.

M.: Now consider the power of sleep to call forth dream

visions. A man lying on a cot in a closed room falls asleep and

in his dream wanders about taking the shapes of birds and beasts;

the dreamer sleeping in his home, the dream presents him as

walking in the streets of Benares or on the sands of Setu; although

the sleeper is lying unchanged yet in his dream he flies up in the

air, falls headlong into an abyss, or cuts off his own hand and

carries it in his hand. In the dream itself there is no question of

consistency or otherwise. Whatever is seen in it appears to be

appropriate and is not criticised. If simple sleep can make the

impossible possible what wonder can there be in the Almighty

Maya creating this indescribable universe? It is its very nature.

 

67-74. To illustrate it, I shall briefly tell you a story from

Yoga Vasishta. There was once a king named Lavana, a jewel of

Ikshvaku line. One day when all were assembled in the court

hall, a magician appeared before him. Quickly he approached

the king, saluted and said "Your Majesty, I shall show you a wonder,

look!" At once he waved a flail of peacock feathers before the king.

The king was dazed, forgot himself and saw a great illusion like an

extraordinary dream. He found a horse in front of him, mounted

it and rode on it hunting in a forest. After hunting long, he was

thirsty, could not find water and grew weary. Just then a low caste

girl happened to come there with some coarse food in an earthen

dish. Driven by hunger and thirst, he cast aside all restrictions of

caste, and his own sense of dignity, and asked her for food and

drink. She offered to oblige him only if she could be made his

legitimate wife. Without hesitation he agreed, took the food given

by her, and then went to her hamlet where they both lived as

husband and wife and had two sons and one daughter.

All along the king remained on the throne. But in the

short interval of an hour and a half, he had led another illusory

life of wretchedness, extending over several years. In this way

Vasishta had related several long stories to Rama in order to

impress on him the wonderful play of Maya by which the

impossible is easily made possible.

 

75-76. There is no illusion which is beyond the power of

mind to spread, and no one not deluded by it. Its characteristic

is to accomplish that which is impossible. Nothing can escape

its power. Even the Self which is always unchanging and

untainted, has been made to look changed and tainted.

D.: How can it be so?

M .: See how the sky which is impartite and untainted,

looks blue. The Supreme Self too though always pure has been

invested by it with the ego and is made to parade as jiva, just as

Lavana the king lived as a low caste wretch.

 

77. D.: If the Supreme Self had by joining the I-mode of

the mind become the illusory jiva he should appear as a single

jiva. But there are many jivas. How can the single Reality

manifest as innumerable jivas?

 

78-80. M.: As soon as the illusion of a single jiva becomes

operative in the Pure Supreme Self, it naturally begets other

illusory jivas in the Pure Ether of Knowledge. If a dog enters a

room walled by mirrors, it first gives rise to one reflection in

one mirror which by a series of reflections becomes innumerable

and the dog finding itself surrounded by so many other dogs

growls and shows fight. So it is with the Self of pure, non-dual

Ether of Consciousness. The illusion of one jiva is perforce

associated with illusion of several jivas.

 

81-83. Again, the habit of seeing the world as you-I-he

etc., forces the dreamer to see similar illusory entities in dreams

also. Similarly the accumulated habits of past births make the

Self which is only pure Knowledge-Ether see numberless illusory

jivas even now. What can be beyond the scope of Maya which

is itself inscrutable? Now this done, listen to how the bodies

and the spheres were created.

 

84-85. Just as the Supreme Self is presented as "I" by the

I-mode of Maya, so also It is presented by the 'this' mode as this

universe with all its contents.

D.: How?

M.: The power of multiplicity is the 'this' mode whose

nature is to be imagining 'this' and 'that'. In the Ether of

Consciousness it recollects the millions of latencies, as 'this' and

'that'. Being stirred up by these latencies, the jiva though itself

the Ether of consciousness, now manifests as the individual body

etc., the external worlds and the diversities.

D.: How?

 

86-89. M.: First, mind appears in the impartite Ether of

Consciousness. Its movements form the aforesaid latencies which

show forth in various illusory forms, such as "here is the body

with organs and limbs" - "I am this body" - "here is my

father" - "I am his son" - "my age is such and such" -

"these are our relatives and friends" - "this is our house" - "I

and you" - "this and that" - "good and bad" - "pleasure

and pain" - "bondage and release" - "castes, creeds and

duties" - "Gods, men and other creatures" - "high, low and

middling" - "enjoyer and enjoyments" - "many millions of

spheres" - and so on.

D.: How can the latencies themselves appear as this vast

universe?

 

90. M.: A man remaining unmoving and happy in deep

sleep, when stirred up by the rising latencies, sees illusory dream

visions of creatures and worlds; they are nothing but the latencies

in him. So in the waking state also he is deluded by the latencies

manifesting as these creatures and worlds.

 

91. D.: Now, master, the dream is but the reproduction of

mental impressions formed in the waking state and lying

dormant before. They reproduce past experiences. Therefore

dream-visions are rightly said to be only mental creations.

Should the same be true of the waking world, this must be the

reproduction of some past impressions. What are those

impressions which give rise to these waking experiences?

 

92. M.: Just as the experiences of the waking state give rise

to the dream world, so also the experiences of past lives give rise

to this world of the waking state, nonetheless illusory.

D.: If the present experience is the result of the preceding

one, what gave rise to its preceding one?

M.: That was from its preceding one and so on.

D.: This can extend back to the time of creation. In

dissolution all these impressions must have been resolved. What

was left there to start the new creation?

M.: Just as your impressions gathered one day lie dormant

in deep sleep and become manifest the following day, so also

the impressions of the preceding cycle (kalpa) reappear in the

succeeding one. Thus these impressions of Maya have no

beginning, but appear over and over again.

 

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Taken from Advaita Bhoda Deepika

as published by Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai 2002.

 

To be continued...

 

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