the Self which is only pure Knowledge-Ether

March 31, 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 SUPERIMPOSITION75-76. Master: There is no illusion which is beyond the power ofmind to spread, and no one not deluded by it. Its characteristicis to accomplish that which is impossible. Nothing can escapeits power. Even the Self which is always unchanging anduntainted, has been made to look changed and tainted.D.: How can it be so?M .: See how the sky which is impartite and untainted,looks blue. The Supreme Self too though always pure has beeninvested by it with the ego and is made to parade as jiva, just asLavana the king lived as a low caste wretch.77. D.: If the Supreme Self had by joining the I-mode ofthe mind become the illusory jiva he should appear as a singlejiva. But there are many jivas. How can the single Realitymanifest as innumerable jivas?78-80. M.: As soon as the illusion of a single jiva becomesoperative in the Pure Supreme Self, it naturally begets otherillusory jivas in the Pure Ether of Knowledge. If a dog enters aroom walled by mirrors, it first gives rise to one reflection inone mirror which by a series of reflections becomes innumerableand the dog finding itself surrounded by so many other dogsgrowls and shows fight. So it is with the Self of pure, non-dualEther of Consciousness. The illusion of one jiva is perforceassociated with illusion of several jivas.81-83. Again, the habit of seeing the world as you-I-heetc., forces the dreamer to see similar illusory entities in dreamsalso. Similarly the accumulated habits of past births make theSelf which is only pure Knowledge-Ether see numberless illusoryjivas even now. What can be beyond the scope of Maya whichis itself inscrutable? Now this done, listen to how the bodiesand the spheres were created.