The world is only superimposed upon the Ether of Consciousness

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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 SUPERIMPOSITION115. Disciple: Master, not only I but all others directly experiencethis world of sentient beings and insentient things and take it asproven and real. How is it said to be unreal?116. Master: The world with all its contents is only superimposedupon the Ether of Consciousness.D.: By what is it superimposed?M.: By Ignorance of the Self.D.: How is it superimposed ?M.: As a painting of sentient beings and insentient thingspresents a scene upon a background.117. D.: Whereas the scriptures declare that all thisuniverse was created by the will of Isvara, you say it is by one'sown ignorance. How can these two statements be reconciled?118. M.: There is no contradiction. What the scripturessay that Isvara, by means of Maya, created the five elementsand mixed them up in diverse ways to make the diversities ofthe universe, is all false.