Maya becomes more and more transparent and turns into Knowledge

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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.]THE REMOVAL OFSUPERIMPOSITION44-46. Disciple: How can Maya be compared to a mother burntdown to ashes by her daughter?Master: In the process of enquiry, Maya becomes more andmore transparent and turns into Knowledge. Knowledge is thusborn of Maya, and is therefore said to be the daughter of Maya.Maya so long flourishing on non-enquiry comes to its last dayson enquiry. Just as a crab brings forth its young only to dieitself, so also in the last days of enquiry Maya brings forthKnowledge for its own undoing. Immediately the daughter,Knowledge, burns her down to ashes.D.: How can the progeny kill the parent?M.: In a bamboo forest, the bamboos move in the wind,rub against one another and produce fire which burns down theparent trees. So also Knowledge born of Maya burns Maya toashes. Maya remains only in name like a hare's horn. Thereforethe sages declare it non existent. Moreover, the very name impliesits unreality. The names are Avidya and Maya. Of these the formermeans `Ignorance or that which is not' (non-english script); again,`Maya is that which is not' (n-e script). Therefore it is simplenegation. Thus that it fruitlessly vanishes into nothing is its `fruit'.47-49. D.: Master, Maya turns into Knowledge. Thereforeit cannot be said to vanish fruitlessly as nothing.M.: Only if the Knowledge, the modified Maya, be real,Maya can be said to be real. But this Knowledge is itself false.Therefore Maya is false.D.: How is Knowledge said to be false?M.: The fire from the friction of the trees burns themdown and then dies out; the clearing nut carries down theimpurities of water and itself settles down with them. Similarlythis Knowledge destroys Ignorance and itself perishes. Since itis also finally resolved, the `fruit' of Maya can be only unreal.