illusory appearances superimposed on the One Reality, the Self

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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 SUPERIMPOSITION180. Disciple: Master, should Isvara be the illusion of Ignorance,He must manifest as such. Instead He appears as the origin ofthe universe and our creator. It does not look reasonable to saythat Isvara and the jagat are both illusory products. Instead ofappearing as our creation, He appears as our creator. Is it notcontradictory?181-183. Master: No. In dreams the dreamer sees his fatherwho was long ago dead. Though the father is created by himselfas an illusion of dream, the dreamer feels that the other is thefather and himself the son, and that he has inherited the father'sproperty which again is his own creation. Now look how thedreamer creates individuals and things relates himself to themand thinks that they were before and he came after. So alsowith the Isvara, the jagat and the jiva. This is only the trick ofMaya who can make the impossible possible.D.: How is Maya so powerful?M.: No wonder. See how an ordinary magician can makea whole audience see a celestial city in mid air or how you canyourself create a wonderful world of your own in your dreams.If such is possible for individuals of mean powers, how can theother not be possible for Maya which is the universal materialcause? To conclude, all these including Isvara, jiva and jagat areillusory appearances resulting from one's ignorance andsuperimposed on the One Reality, the Self.This leads us to consider the ways of removing thesuperimposition.