The real self can't be experienced. The real self is the witness.
Awareness descends into attention. Attention descends into dream.
Dream descends into omnipotent Isvara and its seed of Maya.
There's the waking state, the dream state, and the deep myth state.
From the point of view of Maya, it's Saguna Brahman.
From the point of view of Isvara, it's Nirguna Brahman.
Thus the true pov of I Am is Atman.
The silence of pure consciousness is beyond the big bang.
Reflected consciousness is consciousness passing through the prism of duality breaking into ego and the inner instrument.
The light of consciousness before, after, and during this prism of thinking is never not the light and I am never not that.
Footnotes:
1. Disclaimer: the truth is beyond words.
2. And the inner instrument subdivides into intellect, mind, and memory.
3. Thus spake the Mahavakyas.
4. The real self can't be experienced. The real self is the witness.
5. Awareness descends into attention. Attention descends into dream. Dream descends into omnipotent Isvara and its seed of Maya. The waking state, the dream state, and the deep myth state.
6. From the point of view of Maya, it's Saguna Brahman. From the point of view of Isvara, it's Nirguna Brahman.
7. The true pov of I-Am is Atman.
september river saturday—the crossword puzzles of marina docks are full of words—serenity, destiny, grace—blue moon, morning star, dream catcher—at last, time out, why not
There's the eye of the body, the eye of the mind, and eye of Atman.
The eye of the physical body looks out upon a land of golden idols.
The eye of the subtle mind reflects a poet, a pauper, a pawn, and a king.
The I of Atman is pure consciousness, awareness, Parabrahman.
Science isn't real. Even its theory of everything is fictional. And consciousness only presents an unsolvable problem for all of its consciousness studies.
Religion is unreal. All you can say is saguna brahman with its power of maya made the universe the way it appears to be. For Isvara isn't as much a god as a dreamweaver.
Only consciousness is real. Consciousness is the noumenal absolute called ayam atma brahma. To clarify, pure consciousness is the nonconceptual witness to both dream states and deep sleep.
A. Three Seers
In this verse, the author has introduced three observers, three illuminators: 1. sense organs, 2. mind, 3. sākṣī. 1 and 2 are relative illuminators and 3 is the absolute illuminator. ~Paramarthananda
The Ātman or the Innermost Self is the ultimate perceiver. If a perceiver of the Ātman is sought, the inquiry will end in what is known as a regressus ad infinitium. ~Nikhilananda
The eye is unaffected by what it perceives. It remains untainted and untinted by the qualities and hues it sees in objects. Thus the Seer is unaffected by the seen. ~Tejomayananda
To see the green color one uses the same eye that would be used to see the red color. This shows that there is plurality in the dṛśyam and there is non-duality in the drk. ~Paramarthananda
The eye is subject to changes which are perceived by the mind; for it is the mind that thinks: ‘I am blind,’ etc. The mind knows the changes because it is a unity. ~Nikhilananda
One seer, mind, and there are varied conditions of senses. Mind is one dṛk, and everything is dṛśya. That is eyes, etc are themselves dṛśyas to the mind, to the manomaya-ātmā. ~Dayananda
All dramas on the stage of life are a complicated intermingling of different thoughts. These are all witnessed by the same Consciousness. ~Tejomayananda
We think that ātmā is an object of our experience. There is no such thing as the experience of ātmā because ātmā is ever the experiencer. ~Paramarthananda
States or functions of the mind have been adopted from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad (1.5.3). ~Nikhilananda
Called Sākṣī (masculine noun), Cit (feminine) and Caitanya (neuter), Consciousness is neither masculine, feminine nor neuter. It is beyond classification. ~Tejomayananda
Science talks of the origination of cidābhāsa. About RC (reflected consciousness), whereas Vedānta talks about the eternity of OC, the original consciousness. ~Paramarthananda
B. Reflected Consciousness
Ahaṅkāra (ego) and the antaḥkaraṇa (inner equipment). The inner equipment has three types of thoughts – the mind, intellect and the faculty of memory. ~Tejomayananda
How does the mind become the seer? A reflection of the sunlight is formed on the moon’s surface. The moon gets illumined and the moon becomes the illuminator of the earth. ~Paramarthananda
Ahaṅkāra is Īśvara manifesting in this form. Not a bad thing or a good thing. If trying to remove ahaṅkāra, in the name of removing ahaṅkāra, ahaṅkāra will be sitting there! ~Dayananda
Just as the fire and the iron ball get connected, the mind and the reflected consciousness get connected. The mind borrows sentiency from the sākṣī and the body borrows sentiency from the mind. ~Paramarthananda
The reflection of Consciousness is sentient and unchanging. The ‘I’ notion or ego is inert and changing. The identification of the ego with the reflection of Consciousness brings into existence the ‘sentient ego’ or jīva. ~Tejomayananda
If we look into it, we learn that the heat in the iron belongs to the fire. We understand which belongs to what. In spite of both of them being together, our understanding is with viveka. If this viveka is not there, there is confusion. ~Dayananda
Man falls into a vicious circle of birth and death because of the notion that he is finite, born due to the identification of the Witness Self with the ego. Ignorance of our true nature gives rise to this fundamental error. ~Tejomayananda
The whole Vedānta is about knowing that I do have no mind and that I do not have any connection with the mind. Therefore the conditions of the mind cannot make me a saṁsārī. ~Paramarthananda
The ahaṅkāra is a conscious entity naturally. There is no problem. The body is conscious due to ahaṅkāra identifying with the body. This is also not a problem. Third is ahaṅkāra with sākṣī. Sākṣī is not recognised at all. ~Dayananda
Here, it should be understood that the natural identification goes naturally. No effort can be put forth, nor is there a need to exert in order to end it. When the Self is realised, this identification drops automatically. ~Tejomayananda
The identification of the ego with the witnessing Consciousness is due to error which is destroyed only by the attainment of Knowledge. The three kinds of identifications disappear simultaneously when the jīva realizes itself as Brahman. ~Nikhilananda
There is difference and non-difference. Sākṣī is mistaken to be ahaṅkāra. Ahaṅkāra is sākṣī and that is okay. But sākṣī is ahaṅkāra, sākṣī is antaḥkaraṇa, sākṣī is a sense organ is not okay. ~Dayananda
It should be noted that these states belong only to the ego and not to the immutable Consciousness. These states, therefore, enjoy the same degree of reality. To us, however, the waking appears real and the dream illusory. ~Tejomayananda
Therefore, waking, dream and deep sleep, all of them are due to ahaṅkāra’s glory. Therefore, this whole glory is for ahaṅkāra, not for ātmā. Ahaṅkāra is mithyā. ~Dayananda
The dream experiences, which have the same nature as the waking ones, are known to be internal only in the waking state. The waking experiences are also mere ideas or thoughts of the perceiving mind. ~Nikhilananda
People are preoccupied in trying to know the meaning of objects seen in the dream. It is as meaningless as why one saw a pigeon, instead of a crow, perched on a tree in the waking state. Vedānta inquires into the mechanism of a dream. ~Tejomayananda
In waking you perceive what is. In dream you perceive whatever you think. This waking world is Īśvara. In dream you are Īśvara, you create; everything is just you. ~Dayananda
The subtle body is also called the liṅga śarīra, ‘Liṅga’ – to know. That by which something is known, symbolised, or indicated is called a ‘liṅgam’. For instance, smoke is the liṅgam of fire, Śivaliṅga, a symbol of Lord Śīva. The subtle body is the indicator of life in the body. ~Tejomayananda
With this verse, the author concludes the discussion of the formation and function of the three seers. Hereafter the author gets into the main topic of the text, namely the cause of saṃsāra and its remedy. ~Paramarthananda
Although it looks as if the next topic is coming from nowhere, it is not nowhere. It is the other side of tat-tvam-asi; tvam asi meaning ‘you are’ is one side of the equation and tat meaning ‘that’ is the other side. That is being brought in here. ~Dayananda
C. Maya
The seen world seems to be inseparably knotted up with the sentient Seer. The cause is said to be māyā. It should be noted that māyā does not really exist, but is postulated only to account for our experience of the world.
For example, a rope is mistaken for a snake. The non-apprehension of the rope is due to the veiling power and the misapprehension of the snake is caused by the projecting power. Similarly, māyā veils the Truth and projects the entire world of experiences.
Both Reality and māyā are indescribable, yet there is a difference between them. Māyā’s effect is experienced, but its status cannot be determined. Reality being the subject can never become an object of experience. Reality exists and yet is indescribable, and māyā is an illusion and therefore, indescribable.
~Tejomayananda
Creation is the name of that form of Brahman in the reality of Existence Consciousness Bliss, as in the ocean there are waves which are like the manifestation of all names and forms.
In perceiving gold ornaments, the gold thought remains unchanging, even though the forms change. Hence, though forms are unreal, their substratum, gold, is real. Ramana Maharshi says, ‘Can there be thoughts of the existence of objects without the Existence principle?’ ~Tejomayananda
In empirical experience, every appearance has a positive substratum. The illusion of names and forms appears from, and disappears in, Brahman. From the causal standpoint, Brahman is both the material and efficient cause of the world. ~Nikhilananda
The creation Is nothing but the manifesting of nāma-rūpa and not a production of even an ounce of matter. Nobody including God can create matter. Brahman is independently existing and the nāma-rūpa is dependently existing. ~Paramarhananda
That everything appears in consciousness is fact number one. And no one can deny one's own existence to be honest. Accordingly, consciousness-existence is the metaphysical ground and first principle.
Thoughts appear in consciousness. Thoughts bond to other thoughts. In time, an entanglement of thought is formed named ego. Ego evaluates new thoughts and combinations thereof, and loves them, hates them, or forgets them.
Reflected consciousness-existence identifying with an ego is one big error. Like anything based in ignorance, it has an end via the appropriate knowledge. But because such ignorance is beginningless, it shall require revelation.
footnotes
1. No effort can take you there, only the clarity of understanding. Trace your misunderstandings and abandon them, that is all.
Relax and watch the 'I am'. Reality is just behind it. Keep quiet, keep silent; it will emerge, or, rather, it will take you in.
~Nisargadatta Maharaj
2. The light of the Self within is reflected in the intellect, and this reflected light is passed on, by contact (samparka), to the lower mind, senses and the body.
People identify themselves with this or that aspect of the psycho-physical organism, depending on how far their powers of discrimination have developed and rescued them from crude self-identification with the body.
As long as there is failure to discriminate the Self from the intellect, the Self appears ‘like’ the appearances that come before it. But in truth it is pure light and does not really act or move.
~Alston from Sankara on the Soul
Alston:
We are not here concerned with the intricacies of the early history of the conceptions associated with the names Brahmā, Hiraṇyagarbha, Sūtra, Antaryāmin, Mahat, Buddhi, Satya, Prajāpati, Vāc, Virāṭ, Ka, Prāṇa, Vāyu and other names used by Śaṅkara in connection with the chief deity presiding over the evolution and withdrawal of the universe.
Name and form, imagined through nescience, unmanifest before the beginning of the world-period and gradually brought into manifestation in accordance with the deeds of living beings as the world-process unfolds, are what constitute the stuff of the world for Śaṅkara.
They and their transformations form the external adjuncts of the supreme unchanging principle of Consciousness, and when the latter is viewed in association with the universe it assumes the appearance of a deity.
Various names were used for this deity in the ancient texts, of which the most important, for Śaṅkara, have been listed above. The deity can be conceived either as the universe (Virāṭ), or as the Cosmic Intellect (Buddhi, Mahat, Hiraṇyagarbha) in which all individual intellects are contained and in which the impressions of the previous thoughts and deeds of all creatures lie, or as the Vital Energy (Prāṇa, Vāyu) by which the whole process is sustained.
All lesser deities that preside over natural phenomena governed by law (e.g. Āditya, the sun-god) can be represented as modifications of the one great deity called variously Brahmā, Hiraṇyagarbha, Prajāpati or by other names. The exception is Viṣṇu (alternatively called Vāsudeva, Kṛṣṇa, Nārāyaṇa and Bhagavān), who is often identified with the Absolute.
As for the creator-deity, he is but the instrument of the Absolute, non-conscious in himself and requiring to be sustained and illumined by the light of the Absolute before he can unfold its powers of knowledge and action.
Extracts on this topic are arranged in three groups. Group A gives texts affirming that the Absolute stands supreme, untouched by any of its adjuncts, and yet that, from the standpoint of nescience, we have to accept the traditions of the Veda and Smṛti which represent the Absolute as if it were unfolding the universe through the knowledge and activity of a great creator-deity, the first-born to emerge at the beginning of the world-period, called by any of the names listed above and functioning as the ‘body’ and all-vivifying ‘soul’ of the universe.
Group B concentrates on texts where this deity is specifically revered under the name Hiraṇyagarbha. The name ‘Hiraṇyagarbha’ means ‘Golden Germ’ or ‘Golden Embryo’, and referred, at an early stage of its history, to the first nucleus of manifest being that formed in the infinite waters of unmanifest being before creation, and from which all manifest being was to unfold.
In Śaṅkara’s texts, the term Hiraṇyagarbha tends to stand for the mental aspect of the world-soul. He speaks of it as the collective mind embracing all individual minds, as the repository of all mental impressions and as the material for the ‘seventeen-fold subtle body’.
Texts in Group C discuss the minor deities exercising lesser power into which the Cosmic Vital Energy (prāṇa) breaks up. Such gods have certain supernormal powers, especially that of being present at many different sacrifices at different places at the same time, while themselves remaining only one. But they are mortal and powerless on their own, receiving all their strength from the Lord. Moreover, considered as individuals, even their existence and authority is temporary: they are office-bearers, and only the office is important.
~excerpted and radically edited from 'Sankara on the Creation' pp191-3
Alston:
Śaṅkara’s answer is that from the standpoint of the highest truth there is no plurality and no world and no Creator, and only the divine ground exists, if even the notions of existence or ground can be applied to it.
But from the standpoint of nescience the world of duality is a fact. And from that standpoint it is a grievous error to believe that the world-process goes on through the operation of any blind force and without the conscious support and control of an omniscient and omnipotent Lord.
In Śaṅkara, the terms ‘Īśvara’ (the Lord) and ‘Parameśvara’ (the supreme or highest Lord) are virtually interchangeable terms. The notion of ‘the Lord’ or ‘the highest Lord’ is also usually identical with that of the Absolute (ātman, brahman), though in certain contexts it may be distinguishable.
The only positive characteristic which Śaṅkara attributes to the Lord is that of Consciousness. He seldom attributes the character of ‘bliss’ either to the Absolute or to ‘the Lord’ and he certainly never associates the latter with the ‘bliss sheath’ in the manner of his followers.
From the Lord’s nature as Consciousness other characteristics follow. He is omnipresent (sarva-gata). Hence He is in the body of the individual, but that body does not limit Him. He is eternally self-evident from beginningless time.
As He is Himself perfectly identical with the Absolute, He is often characterized by negatives. He has no body, He is not an agent, enjoys not a whiff (gandha) of individual experience and has no defects or sins. As He identifies Himself with no body, He does not experience the feeling ‘I suffer’.
He is eternal and raised high above all change (kūṭasthanitya) like the highest Self, He has no form (rūpa), He is imperceptible (adṛśya) and needs no support (ādhāra). He cannot be known through the secular means of knowledge, and for this very reason His nature is revealed as the final import of the meaning of the Veda.
He is not subject to transmigration (asamsārin) and His Lordly power (aiśvarya) knows no limits. These and similar texts show that for Śaṅkara ‘the Lord’ (īśvara) and ‘the Absolute’ (brahman) are essentially one and the same thing.
His nature is Consciousness. All other affirmations in regard to Him reduce Him below His real stature. Such affirmations can, however, occur. They occur when the Lord is considered in His capacity as ‘Lord’ specifically in relation to the world or to the individual soul, or when He is taken as an object of meditation.
There are just a few passages in which, considered in such contexts as these, the Lord is actually differentiated from the Absolute (brahman), though even in these contexts the Lord and the Absolute are normally identified.
The Lord may be called, in relation to the world over which He is ‘Lord’, its projector (sraṣṭṛ) or its maker (kartṛ) or the one who fashioned (akalpayat) the universe, or the cause (kāraṇa) of the universe. He is the unmoved mover. He is omniscient and is often called omnipotent (sarva-śakti).
He exists in everything as its essence, and, despite the mention of subordinate deities, it is He ultimately who witnesses and presides over the evolution of all forms even after they have come into manifestation. When the texts speak of various subordinate deities, they imply that all are the one deity Īśvara viewed under different external adjuncts.
The view that the Lord, though pure Consciousness in his true nature, is somehow at the same time an active being manipulating his power of Māyā, is appropriate and useful for the development of the religious consciousness, which is a necessary preliminary before the final stages of the spiritual path for most people. But if it is taken as the final truth, it will imply that the Lord is an agent and is subject to change and is consequently Himself phenomenal.
The stricter usage, therefore, is to reserve the terms Hiraṇyagarbha, Brahmā or Prajāpati for the world-soul and to use the term ‘Īśvara’ (the Lord) to denote pure Consciousness as Witness and that by whose Light the world-soul and all living beings carry out their powers of activity and knowledge within the phenomenal world.
Within the world-appearance there are deities or powers which carry out their cosmic functions owing to the presence within them of the Light of the Lord, who is Himself a motionless, actionless Witness.
So Śaṅkara says, ‘Thus the lordship, omniscience and omnipotence of the Lord exist relative to the limitations and distinctions of nescience only, and in reality there can be no practice of rulership or omniscience on the part of the Self, in which all distinctions remain eternally negated in knowledge’.
Nevertheless, precisely because He is thus pure Consciousness (cit), He is the only effective root of all activity and knowledge, for He is that which alone exists. Thus, although He is in the true sense bereft of all form, body, organs or action, He is in fact the effective controller of the world-display.
For ‘The cosmic powers take up and lay down their activities in a controlled way through the mere proximity of the Lord as actionless Witness’.
Thus the Lord, though without bodies and organs of His own, carries out activities through the bodies and organs of the deities or cosmic powers. The conception of unmoving mover is illustrated by the analogies of a magnet and a king, both of which cause directed activity in others by their mere presence.
~excerpted and radically edited from 'Sankara on the Creation' pp8-80
The Atman dwells within, free from attachment and beyond all action. A man must separate this Atman from every object of experience, as a stalk of grass is separated from its enveloping sheath. Then he must dissolve into the Atman all those appearances which make up the world of name and form. He is indeed a free soul who can remain thus absorbed in the Atman alone. ~P(67)
Translators:
C (Chinmayananda)
G (John Grimes)
P (Parabhavananda / Isherwood)
U (unknown [Indic Consciousness{ai?}])
*Note on numbering: Grimes numbering varies from Chinmayananda. There are no numbers on Parabhavananda's verses so I've used the page numbering used on this version: Copyright, 1947, 1970 by Vedanta Society of Southern California; Second Edition, with added material, 1971.
Unconsciousness refers to reflected consciousness. Pure consciousness is never not there.
Unconsciousness refers to the mind not being present. Unreflected consciousness witnesses deep sleep as well.
Unreflected consciousness is that pure consciousness is nondual awareness is parabrahman—substrate
to the superimposition of both individual consciousness and that universal consciousness called god by some or natural law by others.
The god of universal consciousness, aka isvara, is that supreme justice of natural law and sole representative of brahman in maya.
In duality, devotion to saguna brahman is nondual awareness of nirguna brahman. Brahman is all there is.
As saguna brahman is the representative of nirguna brahman in maya, there are representatives on earth for saguna brahman.
Maya never goes away but thinking maya is reality does. Reality is unthinkable.
As well as imperceptible, unrelatable, unreachable, and indescribable.
Only the ground of consciousness, the principle of existence, and the bliss of nonduality are true.
Unfortunately, the false is completely believable. Dream lucidly, grasshopper. I love I know I am.
Maya never goes away but thinking maya is reality does. Reality is unthinkable.
As well as imperceptible, unrelatable, unreachable, and indescribable.
Only the ground of consciousness, the principle of existence, and the bliss of nonduality are true.
Unfortunately, the false is completely believable. Dream lucidly, grasshopper.
The god of universal consciousness, aka isvara, is that supreme justice of natural law and sole representative of brahman in maya.
In duality, devotion to saguna brahman is nondual awareness of nirguna brahman. Brahman is all there is.
As saguna brahman is the representative of nirguna brahman in maya, there are representatives on earth for saguna brahman.
Unconsciousness refers to reflected consciousness. Pure consciousness is never not there.
Unconsciousness refers to the mind not being present. Unreflected consciousness witnesses deep sleep as well.
Unreflected consciousness is that pure consciousness is nondual awareness is parabrahman—substrate
to the superimposition of both individual consciousness and that universal consciousness called god by some or natural law by others.
There is a self-existent self-luminous reality called Brahman. Atman is Brahman, the Fourth, witness to both dream states and deep sleep.
Atman sees everything in its light but no one sees it. It gives its light to the body, mind, and intellect. Nothing gives it that light.
Atman pervades the universe. No mind may penetrate it. Only Atman shines. All the suns in this universe are merely its reflection. As the moon is a reflection of the sun.
In this body, in the secret cave of the intellect, in that space known as the undifferentiated, Atman shines like a sun illuminating the universe with its self-luminous self-existence.
~adapted from Vivekacudamani 127-136
If you're some household appliance powered by electricity, are you this appliance or are you electricity?
Or are you the ultimate source of that electricity: nirguna, not saguna, brahman?
Am I the body-mind, vital life force, or atman? That is the question.
Am I I Am or Am I I or something completely different?
avyaktanāmnī parameśaśaktiḥ anādyavidyā triguṇātmikā parā, kāryānumeyā sudhiyaiva māyā yayā jagatsarvamidaṁ prasūyate.
This is a controversial verse in the Vivekacudamani as it gives a rather precise definition of my. Some scholars maintain that Sankara never gave such a definition in any of his indisputable works.
Within the Advaita tradition, avidya/maya has been defined as having six defining characteristics: it is beginningless (anadi); it is terminated by right knowledge (jnana-nivartya); it veils and projects (varana and viksepa); it is indefinable (anirvacaniya); it is of the nature of a positive existence (bhavarpa); and it is located either in the individual (jiva) or in the Absolute (Brahman).
The three qualities (trigunas) are the ultimate building blocks of the material and mental universe. They are the indivisible atoms of everything. They are not merely parts, qualities, properties or ingredients of primordial nature (prakrti). They are the very material of prakrti.
There are an almost infinite number of gunas of three different types and by way of combination and perpetual recombination, they produce multiplicity. This theory is very much like the modern nuclear physics or contemporary field theory with a localisations of fields. Nature is like a quivering force field which is undergoing continuous transformations.
The word "maya” may be creatively derived from "ma-ya" or "that which is not".
~Grimes
The Undifferentiated—the perfectly balanced state of the three Gunas, where there is no manifested universe. When this balance is disturbed, then evolution begins.
Power of the Lord.—This distinguishes the Vedantic conception of Maya from the Sankhya view of Prakriti which they call insentient and at the same time independent.
~Madhavananda
One of the powers of the omnipotent Lord Parameśvara is the power to delude Himself! This Power Divine is called the ‘unmanifest’ and is the causal body.
Sattva, rajas and tamas are three ‘climatic’ conditions, as it were, under which thought functions. From these alone various manifestations arise. This māyā śakti consisting of the three guṇas is beyond sense perceptions (parā). Only its effects can be perceived, just as we do not know what electricity is, except through its manifestation.
When a particular tendency manifests in an individual, then only can it be said that his vāsanās are of a particular type. Hence, from the effects-only, māyā śakti can be inferred by those who have the necessary subtle intellect.
These vāsanās make one act more and more and in the end, man becomes cocooned in them and gains permanently for himself the sense of a separate individuality, the jīva-bhāva. All these are created by this avidyā, this non-apprehension of Reality.
Avidyā is the vāsanās in the microcosm. The avidyā of all individuals put together is its macrocosmic form and is called ‘māyā’. This is the vehicle of the Supreme when He functions as Īsvara. When the Supreme functions through the vāsanās or avidyā (microcosmic māyā), It becomes the jīva – the individual ego. When the Supreme functions through macrocosmic avidyā (māyā), He is Īsvara.
Each individual creates his own world around himself due to his ignorance (avidyā), through his mind. The sum of each one’s world put together is the total world which we call the universe, the jagat. Therefore, the total world, the universe is created by the total mind when expressing through the total vāsanās, otherwise called māyā.
Thus the Supreme functioning through total avidyā is God, Īsvara, and the Supreme expressing through the total mind is the Creator (Brahmā) who creates the universe.
~Chinmayananda
Māyā is not independent and it is dependent on the vastu which is parameśa. Parama means that which is not limited by space, time or object. It is saccidānanda-brahma. At the same time, in association with the māyā śakti the vastu is called īśa, the Lord, the cause of creation. Vastu is called īśa only because of this māyā śakti.
Māyā is His power to create, sustain and destroy. It is aja, unborn, anādi, beginningless and eka, undivided. Māyā is not an imagination by any human mind; the śruti herself talks about māyā. The śruti says, ‘Know māyā to be the prakṛti and the māyī to be Maheśvara, the Lord’ (Śvetāśvataropaniṣad 4.10).
The world that we experience must have a cause; that cause can be none other than Brahman. We have a problem here. If Brahman is the cause it has to undergo some change to become the world, but Brahman being limitless in terms of time and other attributes, cannot undergo any change. So we have to bring in another factor that accounts for this apparent change in the form of the world, a factor which is not independent of Brahman. That factor, that power is called māyā. Ontologically māyā is mithyā.
This māyā is parā, and it is the cause of creation. It has got another name avyakta, unmanifest. Before the creation, the māyā is unmanifest. The śruti says, ‘only sat was there before the creation. That sat alone appears in the form of this world.’ Therefore this jagat is nothing but māyā plus sat. It is purely a name for sat, because it is mithyā.
Māyā can be understood from its effect in the form of the three-fold manifestations - activity, knowledge and inertness - we see in the manifest world. From this we do infer that the required factors for the three-fold manifestation should be present in its cause, māyā, which is, being mithyā, dependent on the sad-vastu.
This māyā is understood by a sudhī, one who possesses a dhī, intelligence, who has got śraddhā and a reasoning capacity which is in keeping with the śruti’s understanding. Reasoning can help you to discern things, and it can take you upto a point to understand a thing. But if it delves where it has no access, it goes in circles and finds that all the doors are shut. At that point it has to give up and accept what the śāstra says. So māyā is understood from its effect by a person who has got a mind which always strives to understand what the śruti says and assimilate it.
From what is said in this verse it may appear that there are two realities ātmā and māyā. If they are two different realities then there is no more non-duality. So, is this māyā separate from the vastu? What is the ontological status of māyā? That is explained in the next verse. (Māyā cannot be said as real or non-existent or combination of real and non-existent; is not separate or non-separate from Brahman nor combined in nature of separate and non-separate; does not have parts nor is partless or combined in nature. She is a great wonder and cannot be categorically explained.)
~Dayananda
The Translations
That-which-is-not (my) is called the unmanifest. It is the power of the supreme Lord. It is beginningless ignorance. The three qualities are its constituents. It is superior to their effects and has to be inferred, by the wise whose intellect is in accord with scripture, from the effects it produces. It is this which gives birth to the entire world.(110) ~Grimes
108. Nescience (avidyā) or māyā is also called the ‘unmanifest’, and is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning, it comprises the three guṇas and is superior to their effects. It is to be inferred only by one who has a clear intellect, from the effects it produces. It is this avidyā which projects the entire universe. ~Chinmayananda
108. Avidya (Nescience) or Ma}^^ called also the Undifferentiated, is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning, is made up of the three Gunas and is superior to the effects (as their cause). She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects She produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe. ~Madhavananda
That māyā, through which this whole world is born, is called avyakta (unmanifest) and is the power of the limitless Lord. She is the beginningless ignorance, of the nature of the three guṇas viz., sattva, rajas and tamas and superior to her effects. Her existence is to be inferred from her effects, by a person with a clear mind. ~Dayananda
MAYA, in her potential aspect, is the divine power ·of the Lord. She has no beginning. She is composed of the three gunas, subtle, beyond perception. It is from the effects she produces that her existence is inferred by the wise. It is she who gives birth to the whole universe. ~Parabhavananda / Isherwood
There's a seeing presence which many think is God, some feel as godhead, and one in a million self-identify.
That dispassionately blissful knowing presence, appearing like this hologram of all there is, is witnessing.
See the passion play of great compassion and all the lower passions from Isvara to the lesser gods.
***
Belief is not being. Believing is thinking. Being is unthinkable.
Consciousness-existence is that absolute witnessing presence called Atman.
That intuitive endless I-essence is translating as ekatma pratyaya saram.
As the sea is not a wave, the self is not an ego. As the wave is nothing but sea, egoic consciousness is nothing but consciousness.
Egoic consciousness is consciousness reflecting in the mind of thinking. A wave is the sea reflecting in a world of moon force and wind speed.
People are born with original ignorance of what they are, believing oneself to be a wave and not the sea. There's nothing you can do to be the sea but know you're not a wave.
***
There's a witnessing presence which many think is God,
some feel as godhead, and one in a million self-identify.
Saguna Brahman creates the universe with its power of Maya.
This foremost God is called Isvara in Vedanta. Praise be!
Spacetime appears in the timeless and spaceless Nirguna Brahman.
***
A square circle is unreal. Only consciousness-existence is real.
Thinking and living is neither real nor unreal but mithya.
Thus, Science is not real. Religion is unreal. Brahman is real.
***
Consciousness is Brahman. The mind is reflected consciousness.
Pure consciousness is that awareness witnessing both dream states and deep sleep as well.
They say consciousness is not experiencing the universe as something separate from Itself
but Consciousness is experiencing Itself as the universe.
Prajnanam Brahma.
***
In the world of samsara, there is doing and not doing, rajas and tamas, busyness and inertia.
In primordial Maya, the quantum power of God, there is effortless nondoing, sattva, wisdom, the will of Isvara.
In the world of samsara, I am someone, I know some things, and I love some of them.
In primordial Maya, the quantum power of God, I am, I know, I love I know I am.
In reality, there is the Principle of Existence, the Ground of Consciousness, the Essence of Bliss, Satcitananda, the Nondual Absolute, Parabrahman.
To wit, I minus Avidya equals That minus Maya, Tattvamasi, You Are That, Aham Brahmasmi, I am Brahman.
***
Consciousness is not a product of the body-mind.
Consciousness is the ground upon which the body-mind is superimposed.
Consciousness is the noumenal absolute called Brahman.
The universe appears in Brahman.
The universe is pervaded by Brahman.
The universe is made of Brahman.
Brahman is all there is.
Nondual Brahman is that consciousness-existence called Satcitananda.
I, Atman, am Brahman, is Turiyam.
***
As the sea is not a wave, the self is not an ego.
A wave is the sea reflecting in a world of moon force and wind speed.
People are born with original ignorance of what they are,
believing oneself to be a wave and not the sea.
There's nothing you can do to be the sea but know you're not a wave.
***
"Atman is not inner consciousness nor outer consciousness nor consciousness in-between. Not a seed of consciousness nor omniscient consciousness nor unconsciousness either.
Brahman is imperceptible, unrelatable, unreachable, uninferable, unthinkable, indescribable.
Turiyam is that intuitive endless I-essence. Cessation of the world's appearances. Peaceful. Auspicious. Nondual. What is called the Fourth. That is the real self. That is to be realized."
Ayam Atma Brahma.
Aum.
