LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE-5

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE

 

135-140. With his black body, he protects these homes through the

phantom guards. With his white body he instantaneously reduces them

to ashes. This barren woman's son who like a fool repeatedly

produces, protects and destroys the city at his whim, was once tired

after his work, refreshed himself bathing in the quaffing waters of

mirage and proudly wore flowers gathered from the sky. I have seen

him; he will soon come here to present you with four strings of gems

made from the lustre of broken fragments of glass and anklets of

nacre-silver. The child believed the tale and was pleased. So it is

with the fool who takes this world to be real.

 

141-148. D.: How does this story illustrate the point?

M.: The child of the legend is the ignorant man of the world; the

wet nurse is the scripture which speaks of the creation by Isvara;

the barren mother's son is the Isvara born of Maya; his three bodies

are the three qualities of Maya; his assumption of the bodies is the

aspect of Brahma, Vishnu or Rudra. In the yellow body Brahma who is

the thread running through the whole universe, creates it in the

Ether of Consciousness which corresponds to mid air in the fable;

its name is Absolute Unreality; the fourteen royal roads are the

fourteen worlds; the pleasure gardens are the forests; the mansions

are the mountain ranges; the two lamps are the Sun and the Moon and

the luxurious tanks adorned with strings of pearls are the oceans

into which so many rivers flow.

149-155. The houses built on the high, middle and low ground, are

the bodies of the celestials, men and animals; the three white

pillars are the skeleton of bones; and the plaster on the walls is

the skin; the black top is the head with hair on it; the nine

gateways are the nine passages in the body; the five lamps are the

five senses and the phantom watchman is the ego.

Now Isvara, the king who is the son of the barren mother Maya,

having built the houses of the bodies, enters into them at will as

the Jivas, sports in the company of the phantom egos and moves about

aimlessly.

156-160. With the black body he functions as Vishnu otherwise Virat,

and sustains the universe. With the white body as Rudra the

Destroyer, the In-dweller in all, he withdraws the whole universe

into himself. This is his sport and he is pleased with it. This

pleasure is said to be the king's refreshing himself in the waters

of mirage. His pride is of his sovereignty. The blossoms from the

sky are the attributes, omniscience and omnipotence. The anklets

are heaven and hell; the four strings of glass lustre are the four

stages of Mukti — Salokya, Samipya, Sarupya and Sayujya, meaning

equality in rank, condition or power and final identity. The king's

expected arrival to present the gifts is the image worship — which

fulfils the prayers of the devotees.

In this manner the ignorant student of the scriptures is deluded by

his Ignorance into believing the world to be real.

161. D.: Should heaven and hell and the four stages of beatitude

(Mukti) be all false, why should a part of the scriptures prescribe

methods of gaining heaven or beatitude?

162-164. M.: On seeing her child suffer from pain in the stomach a

fond mother desirous of administering pepper to the child, but aware

of the child's dislike of pepper and love of honey, gently coaxes

the child with a smear of honey before forcing the pepper into its

mouth. In the same way the scriptures in their mercy, seeing the

ignorant student suffer in the world, desirous of making him realise

the truth, but knowing his love for the world and dislike of the non-

dual Reality — which is subtle and hard to understand, gently coax

him with the sweet pleasures of heaven, etc., before laying bare the

non-dual Reality.

165. D.: How can the ideas of heaven, etc., lead him on to the non-

dual Reality?

M.: By right actions, heaven is gained; by austerities and devotion

to Vishnu, the four stages of beatitude. On knowing it a man

practises what he likes among these. By repeated practices in

several rebirths his mind becomes pure and turns away from sense

enjoyments to receive the highest teaching of the nondual Reality.

166. D.: Master, admitting heaven, hell, etc. to be false, how can

Isvara so often mentioned by the scriptures, be also declared unreal?

 

167. M.: Well, passages dealing with Isvara in all His glory, are

succeeded by others which say that Isvara is the product of Maya,

and the jiva of Ignorance (Avidya).

D.: Why do the scriptures contradict themselves with passages of

different imports?

M.: Their aim is to make the student purify his mind by his own

efforts such as good actions, austerities and devotion. To coax

him, these are said to yield him pleasures. Being themselves

insentient, these cannot of their own accord yield fruits. So an all-

powerful Isvara is said to dispense the fruits of actions. That is

how an Isvara appears on the scene. Later the scriptures say that

the jiva, Isvara and the jagrat (world) are all equally false.

168. Isvara the product of illusion is no more real than the dream

subject, the product of sleep. He is in the same category as the

jiva, the product of ignorance, or of the dream subject, the product

of sleep.

 

169-174. D.: The scriptures say that Isvara is the product of Maya

and how can we say that He is of Ignorance?

M.: The Ignorance of the Self may function singly or totally as we

speak of single trees or a whole forest. The total Ignorance of all

the universe is called Maya. Its product Isvara functions as Virat

in the universal waking state; as Hiranyagarbha in the universal

dream state, and as the In-dweller in the universal deep sleep. He

is omniscient and omnipotent. Beginning with the Will to create and

ending with the entry into all creatures, this is His samsara. The

individual ignorance is said to be simply ignorance. Its product the

jiva functions respectively as visva, taijasa and prajna in the

individual waking, dream and deep sleep states. His knowledge and

capacity are limited. He is said to be doer and enjoyer. His samsara

consists of all that lies between the present wakeful activities and

final Liberation. In this way the scriptures have made it clear that

Isvara, the jiva and the jagat are all illusory.

175-179. D.: Now, master, just as the ignorance of the rope can give

rise to the illusion only of a snake, so one's ignorance may spread

the illusion of oneself being a jiva. But how can it be extended to

create the illusions of Isvara and jagat as well?

M.: Ignorance has no parts; it acts as a whole and produces all the

three illusions at the same time. The jiva manifesting in the waking

and dream states, Isvara and jagat also manifest. As the jiva is

resolved, the others are also resolved. This is proved by our

experience of the waking and dream manifestations, and their

disappearance in deep sleep, swoons, death and samadhi.

 

Moreover simultaneous with the final annihilation of jivahood by

knowledge the others also are finally annihilated along with it. The

sages whose ignorance has completely been lost with all its

attendant illusions and who are aware only as the Self, directly

experience the non-dual Reality. Hence it is clear that the

Ignorance of the Self is the root cause of all the three illusions —

jiva, jagat and Isvara.

 

180. D.: Master, should Isvara be the illusion of Ignorance, He must

manifest as such. Instead He appears as the origin of the universe

and our creator. It does not look reasonable to say that Isvara and

the jagat are both illusory products. Instead of appearing as our

creation, He appears as our creator. Is it not contradictory?

181-183. M.: No. In dreams the dreamer sees his father who was long

ago dead. Though the father is created by himself as an illusion of

dream, the dreamer feels that the other is the father and himself

the son, and that he has inherited the father's property which again

is his own creation. Now look how the dreamer creates individuals

and things relates himself to them and thinks that they were before

and he came after. So also with the Isvara, the jagat and the jiva.

This is only the trick of Maya who can make the impossible

possible.

D.: How is Maya so powerful?

M.: No wonder. See how an ordinary magician can make a whole

audience see a celestial city in mid air or how you can yourself

create a wonderful world of your own in your dreams. If such is

possible for individuals of mean powers, how can the other not be

possible for Maya which is the universal material cause? To

conclude, all these including Isvara, jiva and jagat are illusory

appearances resulting from one's ignorance and superimposed on the

One Reality, the Self. This leads us to consider the ways of

removing the superimposition. END OF CHAPTER I.