Hari OM
'Text-days' are for delving into the words and theory of Advaita Vedanta.
A question might now be asked; 'If I am the non-dual Consciousness, then why do I perceive the world as something different from me - is there not the duality of the perceiver and the perceived?"
}ana}anivlasae=y< }ana}ane c pZyit,
}ana}ane pirTyJy }anmevaviz:yte.5.
Jnaanaajnaanavilaaso'yam jnaanaanjaane cha pashyati,
jnaanaajnaane parityajya jnaapnamevaavashishyate ||5||
This is the play of knowledge and ignorance and is seen only in knowledge and ignorance.
After having renounced both knowledge and ignorance, Knowledge remains.
This verse echoes shloka 59 of the Vivekachoodamani, which states, "When the Supreme Truth is not known, studying scripture is useless; when the Supreme Truth is Known, studying scripture is useless." The human intellect can become very enamoured of itself, think that it has so much 'knowledge'. Material knowledge can indeed amass within us, but in the end, it is dry and meaningless in terms of the spirit. It does not raise our understanding of the Higher Element of life. That same intellect can become so caught up in pedantic semantics and doctrinal dissection, that there remains an ignorance of the intent behind the scriptures.
All the material sciences point to the physical structure of the world, and our ego selves take this to 'real' - which shows our ignorance the unreality of it all. Yet still we grasp onto material knowledge, keeping ourselves ignorant of the Truth. If we can reach above that knowledge, we can overcome our ignorance and the Ultimate Knowledge, the Truth of Us which is the One Consciousness will be ours.
The classic example given to illustrate this is the Rope and the Snake. The rope is the Reality, the substratum of Truth. We, in our ignorance and not looking attentively, project the concept of 'snake!' upon that length of rope and have some difficulty not being afraid of it. Only when we calm down, put our boot to the rope and move it around about, can we drop our delusion and see what was really there all along. Maya is at play on us all the time. We exist, currently, in a dual world; hot/cold, honour/dishonour… knowledge/ignorance. By applying our intellect to the 'prodding' of the world, we can overcome Maya and work our way to the Supreme Truth.
