Sandeha Nivarini
Bhakta: Swami, I have been anxious for a long time to ask you some things and to learn the answers from you. Today, I have the chance. This manas (mind) and tatvam (truth/reality) are unknown categories. Their meanings too do not get fixed without experience. But Swami, this delusion of samsara, it overpowers us, strongly and thickly, like the dark clouds in the rainy season. What is the reason for this mighty force that drags us along? This is what has been bothering me. I feel persons like me should understand these things clearly in the very beginning. Will you kindly enlighten me?
Swami: Well, my boy. What am I to say? You are simply suffering from fright, imagining a tree-stump seen in the dark to be a man. That is, you are mistaking the non-dual, the full, the advaita, the poorna, which is brahman, as a separate jeeva and… suffering from the mistake. That delusion is the cause of all your sufferings.
Bhakta: How, then, did this delusion come about, Swami?
Swami: You slept and so you dreamed. You slept the sleep of ajnana (Ignorance) and moha (Delusion) and so, you dreamed this unreal samsara. If you don’t sleep in this sleep of ajnana, there won’t be a dream, isn’t it? When there is no dream, there can be no delusion.
Bhakta: Swami, what is this ajnana? What are its characteristics? How does it operate?
Swami: That, which is attached to the body and feels as “I”, is the jeeva. The jeeva is bahirmukha (outward-faced, i.e., mind directed to outward, worldly things); it believes all this mutable jagat and samsara to be real; it feels, “I am the doer”, “I enjoy pleasures”, “I suffer pain”; it craves for this thing and that other; by losing its buddhi (Intellect) for ages, it is not concerned to enquire its real identity - “who am ‘I’?”, “What this jagat (world) is all about?” And by fully immersing in samsara, it does not remember its true form of advaita-swarupa or non-dual nature. This is what is called ajnana or Ignorance. Is that clear?
Bhakta: But Swami, the shastras, all of them, say that samsara is caused by maya. You are now declaring it is due to ajnana. What is the distinction between the two?
Swami: Ajnana itself is known variously as maya (Ignorance), pradhana (primordial matter), prakriti (material cause), avyakta (unmanifest), avidya (Ignorance), tamas (Inertia/Delusion), etc. However, samsara is the consequence of ajnana. Understand this well.
Bhakta: Gurudeva, how does the ajnana produce this samsara?
Swami: Know that ajnana has two powers called avarana shakti and viksepa shakti, that is to say, the ‘veiling power’ and the ‘projecting power’. That is, it veils the reality and projects upon it the unreal. The avarana shakti acts in two different ways also, as asat-avarana and abhasa-avarana. When a jnani and an ajnani meet, though the jnani teaches that the atma is One and Non-dual, the ajnani denies it and cannot grasp the reality so easily. Thus, on account of this beginningless phenomenon, even if he hears the teaching, he will not have faith and steadfastness to imbibe it and he will dismiss it with a shrug of ashraddha, neglect or indifference. This is the asat-avarana.
Now about the abhasa-avarana. Even when the person believes by means of the study of the shastras and by sheer Divine providence that there is Non-dual atman, he does not investigate it thoroughly to strengthen the belief; he dismisses it as non-existent, by mere superficial investigation. Though he has chit or the Consciousness which is aware of that very thing which he denies, the moha or delusion makes him declare that it is non-existent. This is abhasa-avarana.
Bhakta: You also spoke of a viksepa shakti, isn’t it? What is meant by that?
Swami: Though one is Formless, Changeless and of the nature of dayananda or Compassion and Bliss, one is deluded into believing, feeling and acting as if one is the body, consisting of arms and legs! One refers to oneself as “doer” and “enjoyer”; one speaks of “you”, “they”, “these”, “this”, “that”, etc., deluded into believing in variety and multiplicity! This illusion which projects the “many” on the “one” is called viksepa shakti or adhyaropa.
Bhakta: What does adhyaropa mean, please tell me?
Swami: Don’t you know this, my boy? When you superimpose the object “silver” on mother-of-pearl, the human form on a tree-stump, a lake on a mirage, that is to say, when you superimpose the ‘avastu’ or the Unreal on the ‘vastu’ or the Real, that act of super-imposition due to delusion is called adhyaropa.
Bhakta: What is the real? What is the unreal that is superimposed on it? Please explain all this too, Swami.
Swami: The One and Only, Non-dual, sat-chit-ananda parabrahma (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) is the ‘vastu’ or the Real. Just as on the rope the nama (Name) and the rupa (Form) of the serpent mistakenly superimposed, on that parabrahma vastu is superimposed everything from Brahma to a blade of grass, all creatures, all inert objects like the earth etc. In short, this jagat itself with all the multitudinous Names and Forms is the avastu, the Unreal, that gets superimposed.
Bhakta: This superimposition, of the nama rupa jagat on the advaita vastu, by what is it caused?
Swami: By maya.
Bhakta: Maya means….?
Swami: The ajnana shakti of the aforesaid brahmam.
Bhakta: Ajnana shakti means….
Swami: I told you, did I not? The capacity not to understand the brahmam, though one is brahmam fundamentally, that is ajnana.
Bhakta: Well, how does that ajnana produce the jagat?
Swami: The ajnana shakti, which does not allow one to know the rope, imposes on it the serpent, isn’t it? So also, the ajnana shakti, which does not allow one to know the brahmam, imposes on it the illusion of the jagat.
Bhakta: Swami, if then there is only the advaita, Non-dual One, how did the creation of all these worlds happen?
Swami: You have now come back again to where we started from! Even if I tell you that now, it is very hard to grasp.
Still, since you have asked, I shall tell you. Listen!... The ajnana shakti exists in the latent form, in the rope; it is similarly latent, hidden unmanifested in the advaita vastu i.e., brahmam. This ajnana shakti is also called avidya, maya as I said. This ajnana shakti with all its multifarious deluded Names and Forms has as its base the brahmam, which is chit (Pure Consciousness) and ananda (Bliss) itself. Of the two powers that maya has, the avarana shakti and the viksepa shakti, by means of the avarana shakti, brahmam - the base which is advaita, is veiled; by means of the viksepa shakti, the latent maya manifests itself outwardly as manas. Thus, maya evolves into Mind, and appears as this multifarious panorama of name and form through its exuberance of vasanas (tendencies).
Bhakta: Ah, Swami! How wonderful is the origin of all this, this prakriti! If this is so, what real distinction is there between the waking stage and the dream stage?
Swami: Since both are filled with vasanas, both are of the nature of illusion; of that there is no doubt. The waking stage is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.
Bhakta: Swami, how can it be said that this jagat with its multifarious moveable and immoveable objects is unreal, when it is concrete and manifest, and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?
Swami: On account of the ajnana which does not allow one to understand the reality of the Self, this jagat is as much a superimposition on Him who is the embodiment of chidakasudu (Pure Consciousness), as is the superimposition of the pictures of moveable and immoveable objects on a wall.
Bhakta: Avidya is said to be anadi (beginningless), isn’t it? How then is it blamed so much?
Swami: The beginningless avidya is ended by the dawn of vidya. This is reflected and agreed upon in all shastras (Sacred body of knowledge). Darkness is destroyed by Light; so also, ajnana is destroyed the moment jnana dawns. Every object has five parts: hetu (Origin), swarupa (True Nature), karya (Function), avadhi (Period), and phala (Result). These five parts cannot be enunciated in the case of the paramatma, though everything that has appeared as if from Him through the power of maya, has them. But maya alone has no explicable origin. It is its own proof; it is there in brahmam, from beyond the beginning; it is anadi. No cause can be given why it has manifested itself so luxuriously in Creation. As a bubble rises through its own nature up from the water, a force which takes the appearance of Name and Form emanates from the All-embracive Force, the Limitless, the Full, paramatma. That is all. It is only the ignorant who will speak ill of avidya; really, there is no well or ill.
Bhakta: How can it be said that maya has no origin or hetu? Just as the potter’s handiwork is the hetu for the clay to take the form of the pot, isn’t it the sankalpa (Will) of eshwara essential for the force latent in brahmam to become patent?
Swami: In the final dissolution, or maha-pralaya, eshwara too will become non-existent. Brahman alone will exist, isn’t it? Then, how can the sankalpa of eshwara be the hetu? It cannot be. While considering this subject, you should not take brahma, vishnu and maheshwara as three separate entities. These three are forms of the three gunas. So, when eshwara becomes non-existent, you should not take brahma as a separate entity. All three are One paramatma. But, since it is difficult to understand the working of the world, it is explained and grasped as three, with three forms engaged in three types of actions, bearing three names, each different from the others. During the time of Creation, Dissolution is absent; during Dissolution, Creation is absent. Both cannot coexist together at the same moment. So, since eshwara is in charge of Dissolution, it won’t be proper to posit Him at the time of Creation. That is why it is possible to say that eshwara will dissolve or become non-existent at the time of Dissolution. For Creation, brahma; for Preservation, vishnu; for Dissolution, maheshwara - but all three can co-exist only beyond Time. Man, who exists in Time, Action, and Cause, can never grasp It. When you transcend the three gunas, you too can attain that, but not till then. So, without spending time in such un-understandable doubts or problems, engage yourself in the things you urgently need, traversing the path which will lead you to the Goal.
XVII
Bhakta: Swami, I have been anxious for a long time to ask you some things and to learn the answers from you. Today, I have the chance. This manas (mind) and tatvam (truth/reality) are unknown categories. Their meanings too do not get fixed without experience. But Swami, this delusion of samsara, it overpowers us, strongly and thickly, like the dark clouds in the rainy season. What is the reason for this mighty force that drags us along? This is what has been bothering me. I feel persons like me should understand these things clearly in the very beginning. Will you kindly enlighten me?
Swami: Well, my boy. What am I to say? You are simply suffering from fright, imagining a tree-stump seen in the dark to be a man. That is, you are mistaking the non-dual, the full, the advaita, the poorna, which is brahman, as a separate jeeva and… suffering from the mistake. That delusion is the cause of all your sufferings.
Bhakta: How, then, did this delusion come about, Swami?
Swami: You slept and so you dreamed. You slept the sleep of ajnana (Ignorance) and moha (Delusion) and so, you dreamed this unreal samsara. If you don’t sleep in this sleep of ajnana, there won’t be a dream, isn’t it? When there is no dream, there can be no delusion.
Bhakta: Swami, what is this ajnana? What are its characteristics? How does it operate?
Swami: That, which is attached to the body and feels as “I”, is the jeeva. The jeeva is bahirmukha (outward-faced, i.e., mind directed to outward, worldly things); it believes all this mutable jagat and samsara to be real; it feels, “I am the doer”, “I enjoy pleasures”, “I suffer pain”; it craves for this thing and that other; by losing its buddhi (Intellect) for ages, it is not concerned to enquire its real identity - “who am ‘I’?”, “What this jagat (world) is all about?” And by fully immersing in samsara, it does not remember its true form of advaita-swarupa or non-dual nature. This is what is called ajnana or Ignorance. Is that clear?
Bhakta: But Swami, the shastras, all of them, say that samsara is caused by maya. You are now declaring it is due to ajnana. What is the distinction between the two?
Swami: Ajnana itself is known variously as maya (Ignorance), pradhana (primordial matter), prakriti (material cause), avyakta (unmanifest), avidya (Ignorance), tamas (Inertia/Delusion), etc. However, samsara is the consequence of ajnana. Understand this well.
Bhakta: Gurudeva, how does the ajnana produce this samsara?
Swami: Know that ajnana has two powers called avarana shakti and viksepa shakti, that is to say, the ‘veiling power’ and the ‘projecting power’. That is, it veils the reality and projects upon it the unreal. The avarana shakti acts in two different ways also, as asat-avarana and abhasa-avarana. When a jnani and an ajnani meet, though the jnani teaches that the atma is One and Non-dual, the ajnani denies it and cannot grasp the reality so easily. Thus, on account of this beginningless phenomenon, even if he hears the teaching, he will not have faith and steadfastness to imbibe it and he will dismiss it with a shrug of ashraddha, neglect or indifference. This is the asat-avarana.
Now about the abhasa-avarana. Even when the person believes by means of the study of the shastras and by sheer Divine providence that there is Non-dual atman, he does not investigate it thoroughly to strengthen the belief; he dismisses it as non-existent, by mere superficial investigation. Though he has chit or the Consciousness which is aware of that very thing which he denies, the moha or delusion makes him declare that it is non-existent. This is abhasa-avarana.
Bhakta: You also spoke of a viksepa shakti, isn’t it? What is meant by that?
Swami: Though one is Formless, Changeless and of the nature of dayananda or Compassion and Bliss, one is deluded into believing, feeling and acting as if one is the body, consisting of arms and legs! One refers to oneself as “doer” and “enjoyer”; one speaks of “you”, “they”, “these”, “this”, “that”, etc., deluded into believing in variety and multiplicity! This illusion which projects the “many” on the “one” is called viksepa shakti or adhyaropa.
Bhakta: What does adhyaropa mean, please tell me?
Swami: Don’t you know this, my boy? When you superimpose the object “silver” on mother-of-pearl, the human form on a tree-stump, a lake on a mirage, that is to say, when you superimpose the ‘avastu’ or the Unreal on the ‘vastu’ or the Real, that act of super-imposition due to delusion is called adhyaropa.
Bhakta: What is the real? What is the unreal that is superimposed on it? Please explain all this too, Swami.
Swami: The One and Only, Non-dual, sat-chit-ananda parabrahma (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) is the ‘vastu’ or the Real. Just as on the rope the nama (Name) and the rupa (Form) of the serpent mistakenly superimposed, on that parabrahma vastu is superimposed everything from Brahma to a blade of grass, all creatures, all inert objects like the earth etc. In short, this jagat itself with all the multitudinous Names and Forms is the avastu, the Unreal, that gets superimposed.
Bhakta: This superimposition, of the nama rupa jagat on the advaita vastu, by what is it caused?
Swami: By maya.
Bhakta: Maya means….?
Swami: The ajnana shakti of the aforesaid brahmam.
Bhakta: Ajnana shakti means….
Swami: I told you, did I not? The capacity not to understand the brahmam, though one is brahmam fundamentally, that is ajnana.
Bhakta: Well, how does that ajnana produce the jagat?
Swami: The ajnana shakti, which does not allow one to know the rope, imposes on it the serpent, isn’t it? So also, the ajnana shakti, which does not allow one to know the brahmam, imposes on it the illusion of the jagat.
Bhakta: Swami, if then there is only the advaita, Non-dual One, how did the creation of all these worlds happen?
Swami: You have now come back again to where we started from! Even if I tell you that now, it is very hard to grasp.
Still, since you have asked, I shall tell you. Listen!... The ajnana shakti exists in the latent form, in the rope; it is similarly latent, hidden unmanifested in the advaita vastu i.e., brahmam. This ajnana shakti is also called avidya, maya as I said. This ajnana shakti with all its multifarious deluded Names and Forms has as its base the brahmam, which is chit (Pure Consciousness) and ananda (Bliss) itself. Of the two powers that maya has, the avarana shakti and the viksepa shakti, by means of the avarana shakti, brahmam - the base which is advaita, is veiled; by means of the viksepa shakti, the latent maya manifests itself outwardly as manas. Thus, maya evolves into Mind, and appears as this multifarious panorama of name and form through its exuberance of vasanas (tendencies).
Bhakta: Ah, Swami! How wonderful is the origin of all this, this prakriti! If this is so, what real distinction is there between the waking stage and the dream stage?
Swami: Since both are filled with vasanas, both are of the nature of illusion; of that there is no doubt. The waking stage is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.
Bhakta: Swami, how can it be said that this jagat with its multifarious moveable and immoveable objects is unreal, when it is concrete and manifest, and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?
Swami: On account of the ajnana which does not allow one to understand the reality of the Self, this jagat is as much a superimposition on Him who is the embodiment of chidakasudu (Pure Consciousness), as is the superimposition of the pictures of moveable and immoveable objects on a wall.
Bhakta: Avidya is said to be anadi (beginningless), isn’t it? How then is it blamed so much?
Swami: The beginningless avidya is ended by the dawn of vidya. This is reflected and agreed upon in all shastras (Sacred body of knowledge). Darkness is destroyed by Light; so also, ajnana is destroyed the moment jnana dawns. Every object has five parts: hetu (Origin), swarupa (True Nature), karya (Function), avadhi (Period), and phala (Result). These five parts cannot be enunciated in the case of the paramatma, though everything that has appeared as if from Him through the power of maya, has them. But maya alone has no explicable origin. It is its own proof; it is there in brahmam, from beyond the beginning; it is anadi. No cause can be given why it has manifested itself so luxuriously in Creation. As a bubble rises through its own nature up from the water, a force which takes the appearance of Name and Form emanates from the All-embracive Force, the Limitless, the Full, paramatma. That is all. It is only the ignorant who will speak ill of avidya; really, there is no well or ill.
Bhakta: How can it be said that maya has no origin or hetu? Just as the potter’s handiwork is the hetu for the clay to take the form of the pot, isn’t it the sankalpa (Will) of eshwara essential for the force latent in brahmam to become patent?
Swami: In the final dissolution, or maha-pralaya, eshwara too will become non-existent. Brahman alone will exist, isn’t it? Then, how can the sankalpa of eshwara be the hetu? It cannot be. While considering this subject, you should not take brahma, vishnu and maheshwara as three separate entities. These three are forms of the three gunas. So, when eshwara becomes non-existent, you should not take brahma as a separate entity. All three are One paramatma. But, since it is difficult to understand the working of the world, it is explained and grasped as three, with three forms engaged in three types of actions, bearing three names, each different from the others. During the time of Creation, Dissolution is absent; during Dissolution, Creation is absent. Both cannot coexist together at the same moment. So, since eshwara is in charge of Dissolution, it won’t be proper to posit Him at the time of Creation. That is why it is possible to say that eshwara will dissolve or become non-existent at the time of Dissolution. For Creation, brahma; for Preservation, vishnu; for Dissolution, maheshwara - but all three can co-exist only beyond Time. Man, who exists in Time, Action, and Cause, can never grasp It. When you transcend the three gunas, you too can attain that, but not till then. So, without spending time in such un-understandable doubts or problems, engage yourself in the things you urgently need, traversing the path which will lead you to the Goal.