Advaita Bhoda Deepika #7

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End of post #6...

 

33-35. With the rise of enquiry, Maya hitherto grown

strong by its absence, loses its nourishment and gradually withers

away with all its effects, namely the jagat etc. Just as in the

absence of enquiry the ignorance factor of rope made it look a

snake but suddenly disappeared with the rise of enquiry, so also

maya flourishes in ignorance and disappears with the rise of

enquiry. Just as the rope snake and the power which produces

this illusion persist before enquiry, but after enquiry end in

simple rope, so also Maya and its effect, the jagat, persist before

enquiry, but end in pure Brahman afterwards.

 

36-38. D.: How can a single thing appear in two different

ways?

M.: Brahman, the non-dual-Pure-Being, presents itself as the

jagat before enquiry, and shows itself in Its true form after enquiry.

 

 

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

 

pp29-31

 

M: (cont.) See how before proper consideration clay appears a pot

and afterwards as clay only; or gold appears as ornaments and

then is found to be only gold. Similarly with Brahman too. After

enquiry Brahman is realised to be unitary, non-dual, impartite,

and unchanged in the past, present or future. In It there is

nothing like Maya, or its effect, such as the jagat. This realisation

is known as the Supreme Knowledge and the limit of Ignorance.

Thus is described the 'limit' of Maya.

 

39. D.: What is the 'fruit' of Maya?

M.: That it fruitlessly vanishes into nothing, is its fruit.

A hare's horn is mere sound having no significance. So it is with

Maya, mere sound without any meaning. Realised sages have

found it so.

 

40-43. D.: Then why do not all agree on this point?

M.: The ignorant believe it to be real. Those who are

thoughtful will say it is indescribable. Realised sages say that it is

non existent like the hare's horn. It thus appears in these three

ways. People will speak of it from their own points of view.

D.: Why do the ignorant consider it real?

M.: Even when a lie is told to frighten a child, that there is

a spirit, the child believes it to be true. Similarly the ignorant

are dazed by Maya and believe it to be real. Those who enquire

into the nature of the Real Brahman and of the unreal jagat in

the light of the scriptures, finding Maya different from either

and unable to determine its nature, say it is indescribable. But

sages who had attained Supreme Knowledge through enquiry,

say, "Like a mother burnt down to ashes by her daughter, Maya

reduced to ashes by Knowledge is non existent at any time."

 

44-46. D.: How can Maya be compared to a mother burnt

down to ashes by her daughter?

M.: In the process of enquiry, Maya becomes more and

more transparent and turns into Knowledge. Knowledge is thus

born of Maya, and is therefore said to be the daughter of Maya.

Maya so long flourishing on non-enquiry comes to its last days

on enquiry. Just as a crab brings forth its young only to die

itself, so also in the last days of enquiry Maya brings forth

Knowledge for its own undoing. Immediately the daughter,

Knowledge, burns her down to ashes.

D.: How can the progeny kill the parent?

M.: In a bamboo forest, the bamboos move in the wind,

rub against one another and produce fire which burns down the

parent trees. So also Knowledge born of Maya burns Maya to

ashes. Maya remains only in name like a hare's horn. Therefore

the sages declare it non existent. Moreover, the very name implies

its unreality. The names are Avidya and Maya. Of these the former

means 'Ignorance or that which is not' (ya n iv±te sa Aiv±a); again,

'Maya is that which is not' (ya ma sa maya). Therefore it is simple

negation. Thus that it fruitlessly vanishes into nothing is its 'fruit'.

 

47-49. D.: Master, Maya turns into Knowledge. Therefore

it cannot be said to vanish fruitlessly as nothing.

M.: Only if the Knowledge, the modified Maya, be real,

Maya can be said to be real. But this Knowledge is itself false.

Therefore Maya is false.

D.: How is Knowledge said to be false?

M.: The fire from the friction of the trees burns them

down and then dies out; the clearing nut carries down the

impurities of water and itself settles down with them. Similarly

this Knowledge destroys Ignorance and itself perishes. Since it

is also finally resolved, the 'fruit' of Maya can be only unreal.

 

50-52. D.: Should Knowledge also vanish in the end, how

can samsara, the effect of Ignorance, be eradicated?

M.: Samsara, the effect of Ignorance, is unreal like

Knowledge. One unreality can be undone by another unreality.

D.: How can it be done?

 

53. M.: A dream subject's hunger is satisfied by dreamfood.

The one is unreal as the other and yet serves the purpose.

Similarly, though Knowledge is unreal, yet it serves the purpose.

Bondage and release are only false ideas of Ignorance. As the

appearance and disappearance of rope snake are equally false,

so are also bondage and release in Brahman.

 

54-55. To conclude, the Supreme Truth is only the nondual

Brahman. All else is false and does not exist at any time.

The srutis support it saying "Nothing is created or destroyed;

there is no bondage or deliverance; no one is bound or desirous

of release; there is no aspirant, no practiser and no one liberated.

This is the Supreme Truth." Removal of Superimposition thus

consists in the knowledge of non-dual Reality, Pure Being,

beyond Maya and its effects. Its realisation is Liberation while

alive in the body (Jivanmukti).

 

56. Only a careful student of this chapter can be desirous

of knowing the process of enquiry into the Self as a means of

undoing the superimposition of Ignorance. The seeker fit for

such enquiry must possess the four fold qualities which will be

dealt with in the next chapter. Then the method of enquiry will

be dealt with.

 

A competent seeker must carefully study these two chapters

before proceeding further.

 

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Taken from Advaita Bhoda Deepika

as published by Sri Ramanasramam

Tiruvannamalai 2002.

 

To be continued...

 

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