In
the beginning, the mAya (മായ) created the veil; and the sight
of the Truth was lost due to this. In Geetha, Shree KriShna bhagvAn
says; ‘I am not reveled to all brightly; shrouded as I am, by the illusive
effect of negative reality “yoga-mAya” this deluded world does not know
Me, unborn, unexpanded.’ Due to the veil (the illusive effect of negative
reality), mentioned here, we see and experience things we referred above as jaDam.
Here jaDam
should
be understood as the one, which is not the uNma.
ShankarAchAryaR explains jaDam
as, “The body, sense
organs, Prana, mind and ego etc and all their modification;
the sense-objects and their pleasures etc; the gross elements such as ether
etc; the whole universe up to the Un-manifest --- these constitute the not-Self”
(അനാത്മൻ - ആത്മാവല്ലാത്തതു്). “Everything Is due to the effect of Maya---from Mahat down to the gross body. Know thou, that
these and Maya itself are the not-Self---therefore, they are
unreal, like the mirage-waters in desert.”
In
His interpretation of vivekachODAmani swami ChinmayAanada says: let me quote,
“All that constitutes the An-atman (not-Self)”,
(which we refer as dRiShyam) “has been explained. All equipments---body (Dehn), sense-organs (Indriya), physiological functions (Prana), mind (Mana), and the ego(Aham); all modifications (Vikara), like pain and pleasure etc. (Sukhadayah), all sense-objects (Vishaya), the gross elements (Bhootani), and the perceptible world of objects,
emotions and thoughts (Vishwa), up to the Un-manifest (Avyakta---all are the not-Self (An-athman).”
“The entire world within and around, up to the vasanas, i.e. the world of matter which is other
than the Self, (the
Athman),
is An-atman” (which we refer to as dRikku). “This An-atman is the creation of Maya due to non-apprehension of Reality. Maya is ‘that which is not’. All things created out of a thing which
exists not must be unreal, entirely non-existent. Though they are all
nonexistent, for the time being they are perceptible to us in our own delusion.
Hence they are mere illusions.”
“Though the Mirage in the desert can be 'seen', it has no reality. Similarly, the entire
range of things; consisting of An-athman are unreal, mere whiffs of the mind's imagination.”
“In order to know
the Reality, all that is un-Real has to be rejected, and so transcended.” Quote
ends.
How
did these jaDam (ജഡം) come into existence? Let us see what the upaniShad
say about it. CHanDogya upaniShad says:
“In the beginning, this was Being alone, the ‘ONE only’, without
a second.” (This is referred to as ‘Sat’, which is also called the braHMan
or paramathman. For the English speaking world we may refer to this as Real.)
“Some say that, in the beginning, this was Non-being alone, one only, without a
second. From that Non-being arose Being.” But, “could it be so? How could Being
arise from Non-being? In truth; in the beginning (before creation), there was
Being alone, ONE only, without a second.” “That Being willed, ‘May I become
many, may I grow forth.’ It created fire. That fire willed, ‘May I become many,
may I grow forth’. It created water. Therefore whenever a man grieves or
perspires, then it is from fire that water issues.” “That water willed, ‘May I
become many, may I grow forth.’ It created food. Therefore, wherever it rains,
abundant food grows there; it is from water that food for eating is produced.” “Of
the aforesaid beings, there are only three origins: those born from eggs, born
from living beings, and born from sprouts.” “That deity willed, ‘Well, let me,
entering into these three deities through this living self (JeevAtman),
differentiate name and form.” “Of these, ‘let me make each one triplicate’,
willing thus, this deity entered into these three deities through this living
self and differentiated names and forms.” Now we have the Real and the
things born out of that Real which we call as Unreal as they
disappear after a while. Gurudevan refer to them as “dRikku” and
“dRiShyam” respectively. And Geetha puts it as; “The unreal has no being; there is no ‘non-being’ of the Real;
the truth about both these has been seen by the Knower’s of the Truth or the
Seers of the Essence.”
To understand this little more let us see what
ChinmayAanada Swami says in His interpretation of Geetha, again I quote: “In Vedatttic literature
the Real (paramAtman or braHMan represented
by uLLam) and the Un-real (jaDam or dRiShyam)
are very scientifically distinguished. These two
categories are not considered as indefinables in our ancient scriptures; though they do not declare these to
be definables. The RisHis have clearly indicated what constitutes the Real,
and what are the features of the Un-real. "That which was not in
the past and which will not be in the future, but that which seemingly exists
only in the present is called the Un-real". …… "That which is non-existent in the
beginning and in the end, is
necessarily non-existent in the intermediate stages also; objects that we see
are illusory, still they are regarded as real".
“Naturally, the real is ‘that which
defies all changes and remains the same in all the periods of time: past, present and future’. Thus, in an ordinary example, when one
misunderstands a post in the dark to be a ghost, the ghost- vision is
considered unreal as compared to the post; because, the hallucination cannot be
permanent and it does not remain, after the rediscovery of the post. Similarly,
on waking up from our dream, we do not get anxious to provide for our
dream-children. That is; because, as soon as we wake up, we realize that the
dream was unreal. Before we went to bed, the dream-children were not with us,
and after waking up, our dream-children are no more with us; thus, we
understand and realize that our dream-children, whom we loved and tended as
real during our dream, are, in fact, unreal. By significance, therefore, the Real
is that which exists at all times: in the past, the present and the future. The post is relatively
real -it was, it is,
and it will be.”
“The life in our matter envelopments,
we know is finite, inasmuch as every little experience, at all the three levels
of our existence -among the objects, with our sentiments, and in the company of our ideas -is finite.
The body changes at every moment; the mind evolves, and the intellect grows. All
changes, evolutionary movements, and growths are indicated by a
constant-death of their
previous state, in order that the thing concerned may change, evolve or grow.
The body, the mind, and the intellect are ever changing in us, and all of them therefore, according to our
definition, cannot be Real.”
“But is there a Real entity behind it all? In order that change may take place, no
doubt, a changeless substratum is necessary. For the waters of the river to
flow, a motionless riverbed must exist. Similarly, in order to hold together
the millions of experiences at the levels of our body, mind, and intellect, and
to give us the experience of a synchronised whole -which we call life, we must
necessarily have some substratum that is changeless and real, which is common
to all three.”
“Something in us remains as it were,
unchanged all through our changes, holding the vivid experiences
together, just as a thread holds the beads in a necklace. On closer analysis,
it becomes clear that it can be nothing other than the Self in us, the Pure
Awareness. Experiences that have come under one's awareness do not constitute
any vital aspect of one's own Self; life is the sum total of experiences that
have been devised by the touch of one's illuminating Consciousness. In
childhood, I was conscious of my childhood-life; in my youth, I was conscious of my youthful life; and in my old age, I am again
conscious of my present experiences. The Consciousness remaining the same,
endless experiences came under it, got illumined, and died away. This Awareness
by which I become conscious of things in my life -because of which 1 am
considered as alive, without which I will have no more existence in this given
embodiment -'That' Spiritual Entity, Eternal, All-Pervading, Unborn, Undying,
and the One Changeless Factor, is the Infinite in me. And this Athman is
the Real Self.” (And the Athman is the “uLLam”.)
“Men of knowledge and wisdom have known
the essence, the meaning, and the implication of both these; the Self and the
non-Self, the Real and the Unreal, which in their mysterious combination
constitute the strange phenomenon called the world.” Quote ends. We all know
that Gurudevan was such a “Men of knowledge and wisdom”. And HE had
poured all the essence of it into this work of HIS.
{This translation and interpretation is only for the discussion
within this group. Please do not circulate to any other group or individuals.
Please do not email to any other group. If needed for circulation, please
contact the author. It is copyrighted and no one should reproduce or circulate
it without author’s written consent. Anyone can print copy and distribute ‘as
it is’ – that is without making any change.} Written
by and © Udayabhanu Panickar, If anyone needs reproduction in full or in part,
please contact the writer at (udayabhanupanickar@yahoo.com)
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