explanation of the story

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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 SUPERIMPOSITION141-148. Disciple: How does this story illustrate the point?Master: The child of the legend is the ignorant man of theworld; the wet nurse is the scripture which speaks of the creationby Isvara; the barren mother's son is the Isvara born of Maya;his three bodies are the three qualities of Maya; his assumptionof the bodies is the aspect of Brahma, Vishnu or Rudra. In theyellow body Brahma who is the thread running through thewhole universe, creates it in the Ether of Consciousness whichcorresponds to mid air in the fable; its name is AbsoluteUnreality; the fourteen royal roads are the fourteen worlds; thepleasure gardens are the forests; the mansions are the mountainranges; the two lamps are the Sun and the Moon and theluxurious tanks adorned with strings of pearls are the oceansinto which so many rivers flow.149-155. The houses built on the high, middle and lowground, are the bodies of the celestials, men and animals; thethree white pillars are the skeleton of bones; and the plaster onthe walls is the skin; the black top is the head with hair on it; thenine gateways are the nine passages in the body; the five lampsare the five senses and the phantom watchman is the ego.Now Isvara, the king who is the son of the barren motherMaya, having built the houses of the bodies, enters into them atwill as the Jivas, sports in the company of the phantom egosand moves about aimlessly.156-160. With the black body he functions as Vishnuotherwise Virat, and sustains the universe. With the white bodyas Rudra the Destroyer, the In-dweller in all, he withdraws thewhole universe into himself. This is his sport and he is pleasedwith it. This pleasure is said to be the king's refreshing himself inthe waters of mirage. His pride is of his sovereignty. The blossomsfrom the sky are the attributes, omniscience and omnipotence.The anklets are heaven and hell; the four strings of glass lustre arethe 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 isdeluded by his Ignorance into believing the world to be real.