LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE-2

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA

[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE]

 

31-32. D.: What is Projection?

M.: Though he is the unchanging, formless, Supreme, Blissful, non-

dual Self, the man thinks of himself as the body with hands and

legs, the doer and experiencer; objectively sees this man and that

man, this thing and that thing, and is deluded. This delusion of

perceiving the external universe on the non-dual Reality enveloped

by it, is Projection. This is Superimposition.

33. D.: What is Superimposition?

 

M.: To mistake something which is, for something which is not — like

a rope for a snake, a post for a thief, and mirage for water. The

appearance of a false thing on a real is superimposition.

34. D.: What is here the unreal superimposition on the real thing,

the substratum?

 

M.: The non-dual Being-Knowledge-Bliss or the Supreme Brahman is the

Reality. Just as the false name and form of snake is superimposed on

a rope, so also on the non-dual Reality there is superimposed the

category of sentient beings and insentient things. Thus the names

and forms which appear as the universe, make up the superimposition.

This is the unreal phenomenon.

D.: In the Reality which is non-dual, who is there to bring about

this superimposition?

M.: It is Maya.

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.

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.