Sandeha Nivarini - Post 55

Devotee: Swami, when there is only the non-dual One (A-dwaitha), how did the creation of all these worlds happen?

Swami: You have come back again to where we started! Even if I tell you now, it is very hard to grasp. Still, since you have asked, I shall tell you. Listen. The power of ignorance exists in the latent form in the rope itself. That is to say, it is latent, unmanifested in the Brahman. 

This is also called ignorance (a-vidya). Its base is Brahman, which is awareness (chit) and bliss (ananda). Of the two powers that illusion (maya) has, veiling (avarana) and projection (vikshepa), the one veils the Brahman and the other makes it manifest as mind (manas). The mind creates all this panorama of name and form through the exuberance of impressions (vasanas).

Devotee: Wonderful, Swami. How wonderful is this nature (prakriti)! What is the distinction between the waking stage and the dream stage?

Swami: Both are of the nature of illusion. The impressions operate in both. The cosmos (jagath) is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.

Devotee: Swami, how can it be said that this cosmos is unreal, when it is concrete and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?

Swami: It is a delusion that hides the reality from the understanding, the cosmos is as much a superimposition on Brahman as a series of pictures on the wall.

Devotee: Ignorance (a-vidya) is said to be without beginning, isn’t it? Then why is it blamed so much?

Swami: The beginningless ignorance is ended when spiritual knowledge (vidya) dawns. This is only logical. Darkness is destroyed by light. Every object has five parts: origin, nature, function, period, and result. But in the case of the Supreme Atma (Param-atma), these cannot be enunciated, though everything that has evolved as if from Him, has them. 

Only illusion (maya) has no explicable origin. It is its own proof. It is there in Brahman, with Brahman: it is without beginning. No cause can be given to explain how it manifested itself so luxuriously. Just as a bubble rises through the force of its own nature, up from the water, a force that takes the form of name-form emerges from the Limitless, the Full, the Supreme Atma. That is all. Only the ignorant will speak ill of ignorance. Really, there is no well or ill.

Devotee: How can it be said illusion has no origin or cause (hethu)? Just as the potter’s handiwork is the cause for the clay to take the form of the pot, the will (sankalpa) of Iswara (a name for Siva) is essential for the force latent in Brahman to become patent.

Swami: In the final dissolution (maha-pralaya), Iswara will also become non-existent. Brahman alone will exist, right? Then, how can the will of Iswara be the origin? It can’t be. While considering this subject, you should not take Brahma, Vishnu, and Iswara as three separate entities. These three are forms shaped by the three qualities (gunas). All three are One Supreme Self (Param-atma). 

But, since it is difficult to understand the working of the world, it is explained and grasped as three: three forms engaged in three types of actions, bearing three names. At the time of creation, dissolution is absent. Both can co-exist only beyond time. People, who exist in time, action, and cause, can never hope to grasp it. When you transcend the three qualities, you can also attain that, but not until then. So, without spending time in such un-understandable problems, engage yourself in the things you urgently need, traversing the path that will lead you to the Goal. 

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Dear All,

That brings this glorious treatise of Bhagwan to an end. In the next and the concluding post, we will try and summarize our learning from the last chapter which has been posted in last 3 posts.

Love.

Kanchi Periyava

What is the purpose of human birth? To earn, to eat, to undergo misery everyday and finally to die? Instead of earning and suffering, can we not die now? The purpose of birth is to avoid re-birth. Except man, all animals grow horizontally. 

Only man grows vertically. Instead of growing horizontally, it is God's will that he should grow vertically in order to look up. God has given to animals devices for self-protection; to man alone He has given intelligence. 

By doing nothing, we avoid re-birth; By giving up attachment, we avoid sins.

- Kanchi Periyava