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By Periyava
Translation from
Tamil: V. Krishnaraj
மாயை : தெய்வத்தின் குரல் (முதல் பகுதி)
1-14
Māyai: Deivathin Kural (Part One) 1-14
Buddhism states, “All are Māyai (illusion). There is nothing that is
Satyam (Truth;
Brahman or the Absolute).”
Advaitam says nothing like that. It says, “The world is an illusion.
But, there is a basis (hypostasis) for all these. That is Braḥmam, the
Supreme Truth.
“You say the world is an illusion. There are multiple activities
happening right before our eyes. How could you say this an illusion?”
You
think and say
that Māyai is a nonentity (Asat = nonexistent). But Māyai is not an
Atyanta Asat
(Extremely
non-existent entity).
We summarily reject notions like rabbit’s horn and child of a barren
woman. Māyai is not like that. It is like the mirage (water in the
desert). We see mirage of water with our eyes. But there is no water in
it. We can’t drink it to slake our thirst. The Mirage Water makes its
appearance to the inveterate non-believers too. Likewise, to the Jñāṉis
who realized the world is an illusion, the world makes its appearance
(by sight, sound, touch…). They know it is not a permanent Satyam
(Truth,
Brahman or the Absolute).
(Sat
= That which exists through all times, the Imperishable; Asat
= That which is unstable and mutable.)
We mistake a rope for a snake. Though we discover the truth of the
matter it is not a snake, we experienced snake-induced fear and
discomposure for the duration. Though the snake was unreal, we had all
the symptoms and signs of panic like sweating, dryness,
fear, and bewilderment. The physical world is not permanent Satyam. If
we think of it as Satyam, all events happen in that strain. When we
realize rope is a rope with the shedding of fear, the world is (an
appearance or) a superimposition on Braḥmam, all phenomena have the
basis on one everlasting Truth (that is Braḥmam), and all activities
come to a standstill.
The world is not non-existent as such. That is its appearance until the
dawn of wisdom in us. The dream appears real but gets crushed upon our
awakening. When we sleep in a state of ignorance, the world remains as
real; when we are awake to wisdom, the world disappears. The world, not
being a total falsity or Atyanta Asat, is a temporal truth, known as
‘Prātibhāsika Satyam (Illusory Truth). The seashell under the sunlight
shines like silver; likewise, the world under the aegis of Māyā
temporarily shines. Māyai is zero, zip, zilch, nada to a Jñāṉi. Until the advent of Spiritual Wisdom, the Jīvaṉ (embodied soul; you, me, he, she) thinks itself as a special numerical entity and adds the zero(s) next to it. The zero elevates itself to one and adds a zero to it (0->1->10). The zero next to a number becomes 10, 100, 1000… Likewise, to the Ajñāṉi, the Māyai expands and gives the (false) appearance of true objects-Phenomenal-world.
Jñāṉi sees that which exists as such. As sweet choclate mold becomes many
figures (shaped like a rabbit…), One Braḥmam became all these.
A realistic Bitter Gourd
figure made of sweat choclate will repel a child because the child knows only the
bitterness of the gourd. That gourd figure is sweat. Jñāṉi knows the
world is Ānanda of Braḥmam. Krishna Bhagavan says: What is bitter is
sweet to a Jñāṉi. What is black is white to a Jñāṉi. What is day for us
is night to a Jñāṉi. The Light of Braḥmam appears as darkness to us. The
dark Māyai appears as light to us. You may ask how is that possible.
Māyai in proximity to Braḥmam gets a little reflected light from
Braḥmam. That low wattage light only is reachable to our intellect. Low
to medium light only makes the black letters readable in a book. If you
open a book in a bright blinding sunlight, the black letters are not
visible. (It is like your eyes being caught by the super-bright
headlights of a car. You are blinded.) To us in the faint light of Māyā,
the world’s activities and objects are seen. In Jñāṉi’s Ātmic (Ātmā’s)
effulgence, they disappear. Jnani’s day is night for us.
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