An important aspect of our awake world is that we do not perceive it simply because it independently “exists out there,” much like we do not perceive a dream merely because it exists. A notion (pratyaya) first arises in the intellect, and we then project it outward to appear as an external object. This mechanism is common to both dream and waking states. Through constant repetition and habitual engagement day after day, we gradually become convinced that the objects perceived by us are independently real and constitute an objective world.

Consider this: when the mind ceases to imagine waking-world objects and becomes occupied with dream objects, the waking world disappears from experience. When neither the waking nor the dream world is conceived, no object is perceived at all; this is the condition of deep sleep (suSupti).

If one remains as pure “Vision” alone, instead of identifying oneself as a “seer” engaged with objects “seen,” one transcends the three states (avasthAtraya). Such transcendence is immortality. This (sthiti) is called the Fourth (turIya). [The Sanskrit word “sthiti” is usually translated into English as ‘state’; but turIya is not like the other three ‘states’ (avastha-s) that come and go. turIya exists eternally.]

Ordinary worldly knowledge concerns itself only with the three states and can reveal no more than them. Higher Knowledge, the Knowledge of the Self, alone reveals turīya.

In our daily experience, we seem to be helplessly tossed from one state to another, as though driven by some unseen force beyond our control. What could be this force?

Dualistic schools invoke a Creator or Godhead as the governing power. Advaita Vedānta, however, maintains that there is only One Reality. The individual being tossed about, the force that appears to propel it, and the states themselves are all appearances within that One alone. Indeed, from the standpoint of the Absolute—if such a standpoint may even be spoken of—there are neither three states, nor an individual being hurled about, nor even a field in which such movement could occur. Therefore, the Supreme Self, brahman, which alone truly IS, cannot itself be the force that propels us from state to state.

Then what is it that flings us around? It is nothing but our own defective “vision.”

We are repeatedly told that brahman alone IS. Why then, instead of perceiving what truly IS, do we perceive what is-not? To perceive what is-not is avidyA (ignorance). To perceive what truly IS is vidyA or jñAna (Knowledge).

That is why the muNDaka Upanishad says:

द्वे विद्ये वेदितव्ये इति ह स्म यद्ब्रह्मविदो वदन्ति परा चैवापरा च ॥ — 1.1.4, muNDaka upa.

Meaning: There are two kinds of knowledge to be acquired – the higher and the lower. This is what, as tradition runs, the knowers of the import of the Vedas say. (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda)

The entire range of empirical activities—sacrificial rites, worship, upāsanā, meditation, yoga, and similar disciplines—pertains only to what is-not. In this sense, even the four traditional human ‘Pursuits’ (dharma, artha, kAma and mokSa) stand relativized at a stroke. The Pursuits of wealth and pleasure (artha and kAma) belong to this world, while dharma concerns the attainment of the next. None of these can by themselves reveal the Supreme Knowledge which leads us to liberation (mokSa).

What truly IS is pure, intrinsic Being. Yet that very Reality appears to “forget” itself by remaining absorbed in what does not truly exist. If instead we observe our own “vision,” the seen dissolves into the very act of seeing. Therefore, watch your own vision.

Shankara states that every living being possesses the innate potential for liberation. He writes:

ज्ञानप्रसादेन आत्मावबोधनसमर्थमपि स्वभावेन सर्वप्राणिनां ज्ञानं बाह्यविषयरागादिदोषकलुषितमप्रसन्नमशुद्धं सन्नावबोधयति नित्यसंनिहितमप्यात्मतत्त्वं मलावनद्धमिवादर्शम् , विलुलितमिव सलिलम् । – bhASya at 3.1.8, muNDaka.

Meaning: Through the favourableness of knowledge (i.e. the intellect). Though the intellect in all beings is intrinsically able to make the Self known, still, being polluted by such blemishes as attachment to external objects etc., it becomes agitated and impure, and does not, like a stained mirror or ruffled water, make the reality of the Self known, though It is ever at hand. The favourableness of the intellect comes about when it continues to be transparent and tranquil on having been made clean like a mirror, water, etc., by the removal of the pollution caused by the dirt of attachment, springing from the contact of the senses and sense-objects. (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda)

In summary, we fail to know our own true nature and instead perceive a world that is-not. Who is responsible for this condition? Could brahman Itself be the reason through Its power of mAyA?

If brahman Itself were truly the cause, there would be no possibility whatsoever of freedom from the empirical world. Misperception arises solely due to the power of avidyA operating within the individual. We must appreciate that the Supreme brahman—nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta (eternal, pure, conscious, and free)—cannot have any motive to create a blemished world. Such an assumption would compromise brahman’s absolute purity. It is our own mode of seeing that projects the empirical universe.

It would indeed be disastrous if a rope were actually transformed into a snake. Every rope in the house could then become a venomous threat, and the danger would be real! But when a rope is merely mistaken for a snake, the appearance alone is false, while the substratum remains completely unaffected. Similarly, when brahman is misperceived as the world, the world appears real though brahman alone exists.

Supreme Knowledge is like health; in its absence, there is spiritual illness. From the standpoint of Advaita Vedānta, it is meaningless to ask when this “loss of health” originally began. Such a question presupposes time, causation, birth, rebirth, and other dualistic notions that absolute Advaita does not ultimately admit. Birth implies death; past implies future. In Non-duality, birth and death themselves have no absolute reality.

The very moment one fails to know one’s own true nature as the Supreme Self, avidyA is operative. Then arise the appearances of the individual (jIva) and the visible world (jagat). Both are unreal, fallacious projections (AbhAsa). In other words, it is AtmA Itself which appears as the world.

Once it is clearly known that what is present is only a rope, the snake is no longer seen. Likewise, there is ultimately no question of counting fifteen or sixteen constituent parts of the physical body. What is realized in direct, unmediated experience is the partless AtmA alone.

What, then, is the remedy for this condition?

No kind of action (karma) can correct it, because all action belongs strictly to the realm of fallacious appearance—the dualistic and unreal world. The only sure remedy is the total removal of ignorance (avidyA). That means one must cease merely flowing outward along with the unfolding universe (pravRtti–mArga) and instead reverse direction through the path of conscious withdrawal and inward turning (nivRtti-mArga).

(To Continue  …  Part 24 (mANDU 3))