When non enquiry gives place to enquiry, right knowledge results

[Guest guest]

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.]THE REMOVAL OFSUPERIMPOSITION25-27. Disciple: Where does this smriti speak of Isvara, jivaand jagat?Master: In its statement Sohamidam, i.e., He-I-this, `He' meansthe unseen Isvara; `I' means the jiva parading as the ego, thedoer etc.; `this' means all the objective Universe. From scriptures,reasoning and experience (sruti yukti anubhava) it is clear thatthe jiva, Isvara and jagat are only mental projections.28-29. D.: How do reasoning and experience supportthis view?M.: With the rise of mind in waking and dream, thelatencies come into play, and the jiva, Isvara and jagat appear.With the subsidence of the latencies in deep sleep, swoon etc.,they all disappear. This is within the experience of everyone.Again when all the latencies are rooted out by knowledge,the jivas, Isvara and the jagat disappear once for all. This iswithin the experience of perfectly clear-sighted great sagesestablished in the non-dual Reality, beyond the jivas, Isvara andjagat. Therefore we say that these are all projections of the mind.Thus is explained the effect of Maya.30-32. D.: What is the limit of Maya?M.: It is the knowledge resulting from an enquiry into thesense of the Mahavakya. Because Maya is Ignorance, andIgnorance subsists on non enquiry. When non enquiry gives placeto enquiry, right knowledge results and puts an end to Ignorance.Now listen. Ailments in the body are the results of pastkarma; they subsist on wrong diet and increase with itscontinuation. Or, the ignorance of rope, so long as it is notenquired into, projects a snake into view and otherhallucinations follow in its wake. In the same manner althoughMaya is self- evident, beginningless and spontaneous, yet itsubsists in the absence of enquiry into the nature of the Self,manifests the universe etc., and grows more massive.33-35. With the rise of enquiry, Maya hitherto grownstrong by its absence, loses its nourishment and gradually withersaway with all its effects, namely the jagat etc. Just as in theabsence of enquiry the ignorance factor of rope made it look asnake but suddenly disappeared with the rise of enquiry, so alsomaya flourishes in ignorance and disappears with the rise ofenquiry. Just as the rope snake and the power which producesthis illusion persist before enquiry, but after enquiry end insimple rope, so also Maya and its effect, the jagat, persist beforeenquiry, but end in pure Brahman afterwards.