2.1.18 During dream, the mind projects a dream world out of latent tendencies in it formed out experiences in the waking state. There are 72000 nAdis (like blood vessels) emanating from the heart through which prAna shakti travels to different parts of the body. The sense organs are not functional as they are resolved in the nAdis. The jIva (the reflected consciousness in the mind) travels through the nAdis and experiences the dream world projected out of the latent tendencies in the mind. In the dream, what are the ‘achievements’ of the jIva. He is, as it were, a king or a noble brAhmana or an animal. There are states of high and low. The achievements are false. It is to be noted that the jIva remains in the nAdis and does not reach the heart. If it reaches the heart, then it is the state of sleep.
2.1.19 When a jIva is tired of the waking state and dream state, then he falls asleep. In this state, the mind and sense organs travel through the nAdis, cross a membrane covering the heart, reach the heart and are resolved in the heart. The vital forces continue to function and the jIva is alive. But there is no jIva-bhava in the form of I thought because the mind is resolved. There is neither sorrow nor happiness. This is the state of perfect peace and happiness and is the natural state of a jIva. It is a mass of homogeneous consciousness. But there is no particularized consciousness. There is no difference between deep sleep of one person and that of another person.
2.1.20 As a spider moves along the thread (it produces), and as from a fire tiny sparks fly in all directions, so from this Self emanate all organs, all worlds, all gods and all beings. Its secret name (Upaniṣhad) is ‘the Truth of truth.’ The vital force is truth, and It is the truth of that. The deep sleep is a model of state of dissolution of one cycle of creation. From deep sleep in which there is homogeneous consciousness, a jIva returns to waking state. That is to say, the features of the waking state are in potential form during deep sleep. Similarly, on dissolution, the world remains in potential form in Brahman which is of the nature of pure consciousness. This potential form is the mAyA power of Brahman. MAyA cannot exist separately form Brahman.
As a spider creates a cobweb from the material within it, the unmanifested world is manifested. Another example is of sparks of fire coming out of fire. Brahman alone cannot create the world. MAyA alone cannot create the world. World is combined venture of Brahman and mAyA. Brahman lends existence to the world and mAyA gives name and form. Brahman does not undergo any change. It is called vivarta kArana. MAyA undergoes change and is called parinAmi kArana. The name and form borrow existence from Brahman. It is therefore called mithyA because names and forms are relative truths. Behind the truths, Brahman is one truth. Therefore, Brahman is the Truth of truths. There are as many truths as are names and forms but there is only one Truth. It is non-dual.
2.3.6 The Upanishad asserts that the most appropriate way to describe Brahman is ‘not this, not this’. Negative definition is the best. ‘Not this’ is repeated twice to exclude the everything and its opposite. In other words, after negating all objects of experience, what is left is Brahman. The Upanishad gives examples of the objects of experience. They may be good or bad. Nonetheless, they are experiences.
The first example is a piece of cloth dyed in turmeric. It is yellow. The cloth is the mind, and the colour is the impression on the mind due to the experience. Other examples are grey wool, indragopa which is a deep red insect. The colour represents the impressions on the mind due to experience. There are bright impressions like tongue of fire and a flash lightening. The illustrations are not meant to indicate the exact number of the varieties of impressions, but merely to suggest their types, meaning that impressions are like these. The form of impression, viz, ‘Like a flash of lightning,’ belongs to Hiranyagarbha, which suddenly manifests itself like lightning, as he emanates from the Undifferentiated. He who knows that particular form of impression belonging to Hiranyagarbha, attains splendour like a flash of lightning.
The objects of experiences include subtle and gross body as also the impressions. They are truth. After excluding them, what is left is Brahman, the truth of truth. Shankaracharya explains why this is the best way to ‘describe’ Brahman. “How through these two terms ‘Not this, not this’ is it sought to describe the Truth of truth? By the elimination of all differences due to limiting adjuncts, the words refer to something that has no distinguishing mark such as name, or form, or action, or heterogeneity, or species, or qualities. Words denote things through one or other of these. But Brahman has none of these distinguishing marks. Hence It cannot be described as, ‘It is such and such,’ as we can describe a cow by saying, ‘There moves a white cow with horns.’
Brahman is described by means of name, form and action superimposed on It, in such terms as, ‘Knowledge, Bliss, Brahman’ and ‘Pure Intelligence’ ‘Brahman,’ and ‘Atman.’ When, however, we wish to describe Its true nature, free from all differences due to limiting adjuncts, then it is an utter impossibility. Then there is only one way left, viz. to describe It as ‘Not this, not this,’ by eliminating all possible specifications of It that one may know of. Words can describe an entity if it satisfies one or other of the following conditions: object of experience, quality, action, and relation. In the case of Brahman, none of the conditions is satisfied. Even the description of Brahman as Existence, Consciousness and Infinite is a compromised definition. It is so because every word has an opposite implying non-duality and Brahman is non-dual.
Note: 2.2.1, 2.2.1 and 2.3.1 to 2.3.5 are omitted as they do not have Vedantic teaching.
Contd Part 6