Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the
words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.
We are now studying Aatmabodha. As
always, with each week, you are encouraged to review the previous teachings and
spend some time in contemplation of the meanings as the affect your life.
Please do consider purchasing the text. Remember, also, to recite the mangala charana before each study and
review the lessons before each new one.
In
shloka seven we discovered the truth behind the glint of silver was but mother of
pearl; the light play briefly deludes the eye and riches are perceived. More
than this though, is that the mind, ingrained with a vaasana which triggers
avarice, enlarges the trickery and we reach for the shell that glinted, sure
that it contained silver. On finding that it is only shell after all, we drop
it and go in search of other glitter.
Naturally,
analogies are incomplete, imperfect. We know that in fact there is a value
market for the mother of pearl itself! Not the same rich market, but it is
mankind's greed which builds a value where none previously existed. However,
this example is not given to show the value of the nacre, but simply to start
the student thinking about how easily we can be tricked into thinking something
is more than, or completely different from what it truly is. This is the
essence of Advaitic philosophy. Maya, the mother of trickery, keeps us in
ignorance with constant illusions. There will be many more such examples of
Maya's play as we progress in this study.
In
the next shloka, another analogy is given; not, this time in direct reference
to the illusions themselves, but as a start to explaining a bit of how the
illusions arise in the first place.
%padane=iolaxare
jgiNt prmeñre,
sgRiSwitlyaNyaiNt
buÓudanIv vairi[.8.
Upaadaane-khilaadhaare
jaganti parameshvare; sargasthitilayaanyaanti budbudaaniiva vaarini ||8||
Like bubbles in the water, the worlds rise, exist and
dissolve in the supreme Self, which is the material cause and the support of
everything.
Upaadaana
kaarana… material cause. Here is a shloka which points clearly to scientific
thinking; the Rsis needed a rational explanation for the physical world as we
perceive it. Certainly in the very advanced stages, as has been hinted from the
beginning of the text, all that is perceived is an illusion, just as dream
seems real until we awaken. However, until a seeker is able to prove that
theory for themselves (as all good scientists must do!), there are steps to be
taken in order to build for the experiment. Most of us who read about quantum
physics, or astronomy or any other such science, will never really reach the
same understanding or even have the desire to sit and recreate the parameters
in order to prove, say, string theory or red shift. Enough others have done so
and written about it that we now accept on trust that there is truth in what we
are told. Likewise, Vedantic seekers accept the professorial declarations of
the Rsis, the sadhus, the saints and sages, the Guru lineage; the noble and
able-minded who have worked the experiments, proven the theories and who
generation after generation confirm the original findings. The key difference
between having an interest in QP and AV is that Advaita Vedanta is provable by
every single seeker who is prepared to travel its length, who has the stamina
and the courage. Such a one is the mumukshu; such a one, due to that burning
desire to know, educates his or herself and becomes the adhikaari, the fit
personality for ever-more knowledge. The only 'examinations' faced are the
internal ones. The only one marking the results is oneself.
In
any creative process three factors come into play (notice that number again?
Nature loves the triumvirate!) उपादाण कारण/Upaadaana kaarana, the material cause - as it
suggests, the very fabric from which the new item is made. निमित्त कारण/Nimitta kaarana,
the efficient cause - that from which arises the concept of creation. कारक/Kaaraka,
the instrumental cause - that which permits the joining of the upaadaana and
the nimitta, providing the condition in which creation can be formed. Classic
example? The potter is nimitta, the clay is upaadaana and the wheel is kaaraka.
This example will appear again…
The
important thing to note is that, using the pot example, all the pots of the
world, being of clay, are separate from the potter who made them; however, the
point at which the pot is being formed, during kaaraka, the two are joined in
the process; creator and creation are one. The material will only ever be clay, however, no matter how it is worked. It is the substratum, whether a humble diya or a fine china table-dressing.
The
example given here in the eighth shloka as a variation on this. If you watch
the ocean, the water (upaadaana) driven by deep energy of tides
(nimitta) crashing upon the shore (kaaraka), bubbles will appear. Eventually
they collapse and return to their origin, the water, only to rise as bubbles
again at some other time on some other shore. Extrapolating, the Master states
the universe works in the same manner. Planets and stars are the bubbles of
this particular Universal Ocean, having arisen from some great, deep energetic
movement. Like the bubbles on the shore, these planets and stars eventually
will return to their material cause. That material cause as understood by the
Rsis, is Brahman - the Self - Universal Consciousness. This is the substratum
upon which our play stands.
Just
as ocean is always (according to our viewpoint) ocean, Brahman is changeless
and ever-present. Of itself, it cannot undergo modification; the
modifications are only upon its surface, brief appearances of imagery.
This
concept is taken up again in the next shloka.
