mind fashions all the universe

March 28, 2010

ADVAITA BODHA DEEPIKA[LAMP OF NON-DUAL KNOWLEDGE][Originally

Sri Shankaracharya and other great Sages hadwritten several works like the commentary on the Vedanta Sutrasand thus furnished the methods for those engaged in Self enquiryto accomplish their purpose.From those, Sri Karapatra Swami later condensed thesalient

points

into

Sanskrit

verse

in

a

work of twelve chapters,called Sri Advaita

Bodha Deepika.Still later, some great man seems to have translated thisinto Tamil prose. For some unknown reasons only some eightchapters

of

the

same

are

found

published.]ON SUPERIMPOSITIONDisciple: If all powers lay latent in the Single Brahman why didthey not manifest simultaneously ?Master: Look how the seeds of trees, plants, herbs, creepers,etc. are all contained in the earth but only some of themsprout forth according to the soil, climate and season. Soalso the nature and extent of powers for manifestation aredetermined by conditions. At the time Brahman (thesubstratum of all the powers of Maya), joins the power ofthinking, this power manifests as mind. Thus Maya so longdormant suddenly starts forth as mind from the SupremeBrahman, the common source of all. Then this mind fashionsall the universe. So says Vasishta.51. D.: What is the nature of this mind which forms thepower of projection of Maya?M.: To recollect ideas or latencies is its nature. It has latenciesas its content and appears in the witnessing consciousness intwo modes — "I" and "This".D.: What are these modes?M.: They are the concept "I" and the concepts "this","that", etc.52. D.: How is this I-mode superimposed on the witnessingconsciousness ?M.: Just as silver superimposed on nacre presents the nacreas silver, so also the I-mode on the basic witness presents it as"I", i.e. the ego, as if the witness were not different from theego but were the ego itself.53. Just as a person possessed by a spirit is deluded andbehaves as altogether a different person, so also the witnesspossessed by the I-mode forgets its true nature and presentsitself as the ego.