Maha Yoga, The World #3 (by Who)

January 24, 2006

5 The World

from Maha Yoga, by Who

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This teaching has come in for a great deal of violent criticism. It is asserted that the teaching is not to be found in the Upanishads — that it is an invention of more recent writers, which was adopted by Bhagavan Sri Sankara. For us, the controversy is set at rest by the testimony of the Sage of Arunachala. The teaching that the world is maya only states a principle known to and admitted by all, namely that things are not what they seem. Modern science, especially physics, has gone far towards confirming it as the fundamental principle of matter. Whereas the Reality is One, indivisible, unchangeable, untainted, formless, timeless and spaceless, our minds picture It as manifold, broken up into an infinite number of fragments, subject to change, tainted by desire, fear and sorrow, confined in forms, and limited in time and space. This rather long and complicated statement is summarised by the statement that all this is maya. The school of Vedanta which accepts this teaching is called Advaita. Those that are repelled by this teaching are not asked to accept it. It is offered only to those that have realised that the cause of bondage is ignorance, and earnestly desire to get rid of it. Their point of view is fundamentally different from that of other people, and the teaching given to them is naturally different.The merit of this teaching lies in its giving us a synthesis of two apparently unconnected teachings of the ancient lore, namely that the Reality is the material Cause of the world, and that it remains unaffected, transcending all duality. Those that are determined to believe that the Reality has really become all this multiplicity are not called upon to accept the teaching; for them the ancient lore and Sages have provided other ways of spiritual progress. The Sages are not at all annoyed if these people assert that their way is alone the right way. But if ignorance is to be transcended, there is no escape from accepting this teaching;

for if the world be real as such,there would be no unchangeable Reality, without which there can be no Deliverance.Thus the teaching about the world is really two-fold. But that part of the teaching which says that the real Self is the Truth underlying the world appearance, is separable from the other part. Besides, the latter part — namely that the world is not real as such — is of greater value to us to begin with, because it serves as an antidote to the false belief that the world is real as such. The former part of the teaching is also more difficult of comprehension. Hence the Sages recommend the cultivation of the belief that the world is unreal, even though it is not the whole truth about the world. Those who are unable to assimilate the whole teaching would be on the safe side if they accept that part of it which says that the world is unreal. This will be the safe course, because the alternative to the view of the world’s unreality often is that the world is real as world. For the average mind is so made that it cannot beheld in suspense on any question that is raised; it must have an answer one way or other to any question that is raised.

Reasons for the view that the world is unreal as such are given in ample measure. We shall now consider these.The first reason is the fact of the ignorance that is at the root of all our experience. Once the Sage was asked the following question: “How can I accept the teaching that the world — which I am sensing all the time in so many ways —is not real? The Sage answered: “This world, which you try to prove to be real, is all the time mocking at you for seeking to know it, without your first knowing yourself!” If once we realise that we do not know ourselves aright, how can we pretend that we know the world aright? The Sage has expressed this argument as follows: “How can the knowledge of objects arising in relative existence to one that knows not the truth of himself, the knower, be true knowledge? If one rightly knows the truth of him named ‘I’, in whom both knowledge and its opposite subsist, then along with ignorance (relative) knowledge also will cease. To one that can feel the full force of this argument no further discussion is needful. The teaching that the world is not real as such will become self-evident as soon as one comes to feel that ignorance of the Self is the one source of all worldly knowledge.

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