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Panchadasi
Chapter
13 Advaitananda—The Bliss of Non-Duality
The Taittiriya Upanishad says that the world is born from bliss, it
abides in bliss and finally merges in bliss. This bliss is the same as Brahman.
Brahman is thus the material cause of the world.
The relationship between the material cause and the effect is explained
in different ways in the different schools. According to Vaiseshika, the effect
is something new and absolutely different from the cause. This is known as
Arambhavada.
The Sankhyas hold the view that the effect is an actual transformation of
the cause, like milk changing into curd, clay into pot and gold into ornaments.
This is known as Parinamavada.
In the case of a rope appearing as a snake, there is no real
transformation. The snake is only a Vivarta or apparent modification of the
rope. The appearance of the snake is due to ignorance of the rope. Similarly,
the world is only a Vivarta of Brahman. Maya conceals Brahman and projects the
world.
Maya is the power of Brahman. Power does not exist apart from its
possessor. At the same time, power is not identical with its possessor, because
even when the power is obstructed, its possessor remains the same. Power cannot
be directly perceived, but can only be inferred from its effect. Maya, the power
of Brahman, manifests as action, knowledge and will. The supreme unconditioned
Brahman is eternal, infinite and non-dual. When associated with Maya, Brahman is
described as omnipotent.
Brahman becomes manifest as consciousness in all living beings. Its power
appears as movement in air, hardness in stone, liquidity in water, and heat in
fire. Just as a tree with its branches, leaves, flowers, fruits, etc., is latent
in the seed, so is this world latent in Brahman (before manifestation). When
Brahman assumes the power of cognition it is called the mind. The notions of
bondage and liberation arise in the mind.
In Yogavasishta it is said that a nurse narrated the following story to
amuse a child. Once upon a time there were three handsome princes. Two of them
were never born and the third was never even conceived. They lived righteously
in a city which never existed. While moving about in the city the princes saw
trees laden with fruits growing in the sky. Then they went to another city which
had not yet come into existence and lived there happily, spending their time in
games and hunting. The child believed all this to be true because of lack of
discriminating capacity. In the same way this world is accepted as real by those
who have no discrimination. Sage Vasishta described the power of Maya through
such stories.
Maya is different from its effect as well as from its substratum. It can
only be inferred from its effect, just as the burning power of an ember can be
inferred only from the blister caused by it.
An effect is non-different from its cause. A clay pot is not different
from the clay, because it has no existence apart from the clay. At the same
time, the pot is not identical with clay, because it is not perceived in the un-moulded
clay. Therefore the pot has to be called indescribable, like the power which
produced it. Because of this, the Chandogya Upanishad says that the pot is not
real, being only a name, reality being attributed only to the clay (Ch.Up.
6.1.4). Of the three entities, namely, the product of power which is
perceptible, the power itself which is not perceptible, and the substratum in
which they both inhere, only the third persists; the first two exist by turns.
So only the third is real. The pot has a beginning and an end. It is therefore
not real. Before the pot was made it was only clay. When the pot exists, it is
also only clay. After the pot is destroyed there is only clay. Thus clay alone
is real. (It should be noted that this reality is only from the empirical point
of view).
The illusory snake disappears when the substratum, rope, is known. But a
pot continues to appear as such even after its substratum, clay, is known. So
the question is, how can the pot be said to be illusory? The answer is that
though the pot is still seen, it is realized that it has no reality apart from
clay. The substitution of the notion that the pot has a reality of its own by
the realization that it is nothing but clay with a particular name and form can
be described as destruction of the pot.
The world is superimposed on Brahman. Even after the realization that
Brahman is the only reality the world continues to be perceived by the realized
person, but it is not accepted as real by him. He is not affected by the joys
and sorrows in the world. It is in this sense that the world is said to have
ceased to exist when Brahman is realized.
In an actual transformation, as in the case of milk becoming curd, the
original substance, milk, disappears. But in the modification of clay into pot,
or gold into ornaments, the substratum, clay or gold, remains as such. Chandogya
Upanishad says that by knowing a lump of clay, everything made of clay is known.
Similarly, by knowing Brahman the whole phenomenal universe is known. Brahman is
existence, consciousness and bliss, whereas the world consists of name and form.
Before the manifestation of the universe Maya remained unmanifest in
Brahman. The Svetasvatara Upanishad says: ”Know Maya to be Prakriti (the
material cause of the universe), and the supreme Lord to be the Ruler (or
substratum) of Maya”. Name and form are merely superimposed on Brahman.
By the continuous practice of meditation on Brahman a person becomes
established in the knowledge of Brahman. Then he becomes liberated from Samsara.
In dream a man sees impossible things happening, but at that time he does
not even realize that they are impossible, but accepts them as correct. When
such is the power of dream, what is there to wonder about the power of Maya
which projects this universe and makes it appear real? The whole universe is
only the projection of names and forms in Brahman by Maya. When one realizes
that all names and forms have no reality and rejects them he remains as the pure
Brahman. Even if he continues to be engaged in worldly matters he is not
affected by the joys and sorrows arising from them.
Just as a huge rock lying in the bed of a river remains unaffected even
though water continuously flows over it, Brahman remains unchanged while names
and forms keep on changing.
Realizing that Brahman is existence, consciousness and bliss, one should
keep his mind fixed on Brahman and restrain it from dwelling on names and forms.
Thus the bliss of non-duality will be realized. End
of chapter 13
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