All other than Brahman is false and does not exist at any time

April 19, 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.]THE REMOVAL OFSUPERIMPOSITION50-52. Disciple: Should Knowledge also vanish in the end, howcan samsara, the effect of Ignorance, be eradicated?Master: Samsara, the effect of Ignorance, is unreal likeKnowledge. One unreality can be undone by another unreality.D.: How can it be done?53. M.: A dream subject's hunger is satisfied by dreamfood.The one is unreal as the other and yet serves the purpose.Similarly, though Knowledge is unreal, yet it serves the purpose.Bondage and release are only false ideas of Ignorance. As theappearance and disappearance of rope snake are equally false,so are also bondage and release in Brahman.54-55. To conclude, the Supreme Truth is only the nondualBrahman. All else is false and does not exist at any time.The srutis support it saying "Nothing is created or destroyed;there is no bondage or deliverance; no one is bound or desirousof release; there is no aspirant, no practiser and no one liberated.This is the Supreme Truth." Removal of Superimposition thusconsists in the knowledge of non-dual Reality, Pure Being,beyond Maya and its effects. Its realisation is Liberation whilealive in the body (Jivanmukti).56. Only a careful student of this chapter can be desirousof knowing the process of enquiry into the Self as a means ofundoing the superimposition of Ignorance. The seeker fit forsuch enquiry must possess the four fold qualities which will bedealt with in the next chapter. Then the method of enquiry willbe dealt with.A competent seeker must carefully study these two chaptersbefore proceeding further.