Atmajyoti

Sri Lakshmi Narayan Aithal

THE  WORLD  IS  AN  IMAGE  IN  A  MIRROR  APPEARS  IN  THE  UNIQUE  SELF.

 

 (Objection: -) If  the  cognition  of  the  world  is  simply  illusionary,   after  obtaining  the  knowledge  of  the  Self,  should  it  not  disappear,  as  the  snake  in  the  rope,  etc.  Disappear?

   (Relief: -) From  the  view  point  of  reality  we  have  answered  this  objection.  Now,  we  are  going  to  give  another  consolatory  solution,  accepting  that  the  world  really  exists  and  it  appears  empirically.  An  appearance  which  doesn’t  really  exist  may  continue  to  appear  even  after  knowing  the  reality.  For an instance, the reflection in a mirror can be taken.  Children  believe  their  respective  reflections  in  the  mirror  to  be  another  child  alone  and  after  a  few  days  they  understand  that  is  the  reflection,  and  really  there  is  no  child.  Even  after  this  understanding  the  reflection  continues  to  appear,  isn’t  it?  Similarly,  the  world  doesn’t  have  a  separate  existence;  its  existence  is  that  of  the  Big  Self,  itself;  and  even  after  knowing  this  reality,  the  world  continues  to  appear.

Atmajyoti

By  Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal

(Shri Lakshminarayan Aithal has served for over 3 decades in Swami’s institution and is the former Principal of the Sri Sathya Sai Loka Seva Institutions at Muddenahalli. Inspired by Swami’s direct message to study the Upanishads, he first learnt Sanskrit and then studied the direct works of Adi Shankaracharya and Swami. Sincere perseverance led him to the reality of Aham Brahmasmi and He realized and experienced Swami’s words: “I am God and so are you”. He shares the import of the Upanishadic teachings with us in this series of articles.)

Now,  let  us  enquire  into  the  third  and  the  fourth  objections.  A rope is different from the snake.  The latter object may be imagined in the former one.  But,  does  the  one self  delude  that  he  is  of  other  form?  How  do  we  believe  that  many  living  beings  and  inert  objects  are  imagined  in  the  Sole  Auspicious  Form  of  the  Self?  How  do  we  believe  that,  in  front  of  the  Self,  the  non-self-world  is  imagined,  apart  from  Him?  None of these two suitably befit to the rope-snake-illustration.  This,  in  a  nutshell,  is  the  purport  of  the  two  objections.  If  the  Self  is  of  the  Form  of  Existence-Awareness-Bliss,  how  does  the  non-existent-inert-sorrowful-world  appear  in  Him?  This is also included in the doubt of the objector.