you mistake the non-dual, perfect Self for an individual

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ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE][Originally

Sri Shankaracharya and other great Sages hadwritten several works like the commentary on the Vedanta Sutrasand thus furnished the methods for those engaged in Self enquiryto accomplish their purpose.From those, Sri Karapatra Swami later condensed thesalient

points

into

Sanskrit verse in a work of twelve chapters,called Sri Advaita

Bodha Deepika.Still later, some great man seems to have translated thisinto Tamil prose. For some unknown reasons only some eightchapters

of

the same are found published.]ON SUPERIMPOSITIONDisciple: What does exist then?Master: There exists only the beginningless, endless, non-dual,never bound, ever free, pure, aware, single, Supreme, BlissKnowledge.18. D.: If so, tell me how this mighty massive delusion ofsamsara veils me in dense darkness like a mass of clouds in therainy season.19-20. M.: What can be said of the power of this Illusion(Maya)! As a man mistakes a post for a man, so also you mistakethe non-dual, perfect Self for an individual. Being deluded youare miserable. But how does this illusion arise? Like a dream insleep this false samsara appears in the illusion of ignorance whichis itself unreal. Hence your mistake.21-24. D.: What is this ignorance?M.: Listen. In the body appears a phantom, the `false-I', toclaim the body for itself and it is called jiva. This jiva alwaysoutward bent, taking the world to be real and himself to be thedoer and experiencer of pleasures and pains, desirous of thisand that, undiscriminating, not once remembering his truenature, nor enquiring "Who am I?, What is this world?", is butwandering in the samsara without knowing himself. Suchforgetfulness of the Self is Ignorance.