An important aspect of our awake world is that we do not perceive it simply because it “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 “object” external to us. This mechanism is common to both dream objects and waking objects. The same process underlies both sacred ritualistic acts and ordinary worldly activities. Through constant repetition and habitual engagement with objects day after day, we gradually become convinced that they are independently real and “exist outside as the 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 world nor the dream world is conceived, no object is perceived at all; this is the condition of deep sleep.
If one remains as pure “Vision” alone, instead of identifying oneself as the ‘seer’ engaged with the objects ‘seen,’ one transcends the three states (avasthAtraya) — waking, dream, and deep sleep. Such transcendence is immortality. This state is called the Fourth (turIya). 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 turIya.
Yet we seem to be helplessly tossed from one state to another, as though driven by some unseen force beyond our control. What is this force?
Dualistic schools invoke a Creator or God-head as the governing power. Advaita, however, says 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 jnAna (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 yogas are relativized at a stroke. The pursuits of wealth and pleasure (artha and kAma) belong to this world, while dharma concerns attainment of the next world. None of these can by themselves reveal the Supreme Knowledge.
The Bhagavad Gītā likewise declares:
त्रैगुण्यविषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन । – 2.45, BG.
Meaning: O’ Arjuna, the Vedas have the three qualities as their object. You become free from worldliness, free from the pairs of duality, ever-poised in the quality of sattva, without (desire for) acquisition and protection, and self-collected (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda)..
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 human living being possesses the 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. (Trans: Swami Gabhirananda).
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 cause 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 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 itself compromise brahman’s purity. Why should Brahman create a world at all? It is our own mode of seeing that projects the empirical world. We do not perceive a world because a world independently exists.
It would indeed be disastrous if a rope were actually transformed into a snake. Every rope in the house could then become a snake! The danger would be real.
But when a rope is merely mistaken for a snake, the appearance alone is false, not the substratum. 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” began. Such a question presupposes time, causation, birth, rebirth, and other dualistic notions. Absolute Advaita does not ultimately admit such categories. 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 begins. Then arise the appearances of the individual (jIva) and the visible world (jagat). Both are unreal appearances — mere fallacious projections (AbhAsa). In other words, it is AtmA Itself that appears as the world.
Because we are unable to recognize AtmA, we perceive a 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 15 or 16 constituent parts of the body. What is realized in direct experience is the partless AtmA alone.
What, then, is the remedy for this condition?
No kind of action (karma) can correct it, because all karma belongs only to the realm of the fallacious appearance — the dualistic and unreal world. The only sure remedy is the removal of ignorance (avidyA). That means one must cease merely flowing outward along with the unfolding universe (pravRtti–mArga) and instead reverse the direction through the path of withdrawal and inward turning (nivRtti-mArga).
An important aspect of our awake world is that we do not perceive it simply because it “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 “object” external to us. This mechanism is common to both dream objects and waking objects. The same process underlies both sacred ritualistic acts and ordinary worldly activities. Through constant repetition and habitual engagement with objects day after day, we gradually become convinced that they are independently real and “exist outside as the 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 world nor the dream world is conceived, no object is perceived at all; this is the condition of deep sleep.
If one remains as pure “Vision” alone, instead of identifying oneself as the ‘seer’ engaged with the objects ‘seen,’ one transcends the three states (avasthātraya) — waking, dream, and deep sleep. Such transcendence is immortality. This state is called the Fourth (turīya). 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.
Yet we seem to be helplessly tossed from one state to another, as though driven by some unseen force beyond our control. What is this force?
Dualistic schools invoke a Creator or God-head as the governing power. Advaita, however, says 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 jnAna (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 yogas are relativized at a stroke. The pursuits of wealth and pleasure (artha and kAma) belong to this world, while dharma concerns attainment of the next world. None of these can by themselves reveal the Supreme Knowledge.
The Bhagavad Gītā likewise declares:
त्रैगुण्यविषया वेदा निस्त्रैगुण्यो भवार्जुन । – 2.45, BG.
Meaning: O’ Arjuna, the Vedas have the three qualities as their object. You become free from worldliness, free from the pairs of duality, ever-poised in the quality of sattva, without (desire for) acquisition and protection, and self-collected (Translation: Swami Gambhirananda)..
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 human living being possesses the 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. (Trans: Swami Gabhirananda).
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 cause 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 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 itself compromise brahman’s purity. Why should Brahman create a world at all? It is our own mode of seeing that projects the empirical world. We do not perceive a world because a world independently exists.
It would indeed be disastrous if a rope were actually transformed into a snake. Every rope in the house could then become a snake! The danger would be real.
But when a rope is merely mistaken for a snake, the appearance alone is false, not the substratum. 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” began. Such a question presupposes time, causation, birth, rebirth, and other dualistic notions. Absolute Advaita does not ultimately admit such categories. 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 begins. Then arise the appearances of the individual (jIva) and the visible world (jagat). Both are unreal appearances — mere fallacious projections (AbhAsa). In other words, it is AtmA Itself that appears as the world.
Because we are unable to recognize AtmA, we perceive a 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 15 or 16 constituent parts of the body. What is realized in direct experience is the partless AtmA alone.
What, then, is the remedy for this condition?
No kind of action (karma) can correct it, because all karma belongs only to the realm of the fallacious appearance — the dualistic and unreal world. The only sure remedy is the removal of ignorance (avidyA). That means one must cease merely flowing outward along with the unfolding universe (pravRtti–mArga) and instead reverse the direction through the path of withdrawal and inward turning (nivRtti-mArga).
(To Continue … Part 24 (mANDU 3))