The Jiva and Brahman

The question arises as to why at all there is this confusion? When the Real is so different from the Unreal why can't Reality be seen of its own accord and why is one forced to follow a certain regimen to understand THAT which one verily is? This question is quite puzzling and is indeed an eternal one. The fact however is that Reality and Unreality are actually two sides of the same coin. Unreality has no independent existence. Indeed Unreality exists only if Reality exists (though vice versa may or may not be true). Unreality requires what is known as the Adhishthana (locus) or a source from whence it obtains its existence. You cannot see a snake in a rope UNLESS the Rope exists. The Rope becomes the Adhisthana (locus) for the snake. Snake (if indeed there is one) is said to be Kalpita (Adhyasik) in the Rope. If the rope were not there there would be no snake as well. Thus the fact of I as the self-existent reality alone causes all this drama of the world to unfold. Now the question comes - since the Self is verily the One without a Second and all the worldly drama we see is nothing but a figment of imagination - WHO is it that is imagining? ALL the individuals (human beings) are under the source of this Universal Spell of Confusion. But then the Shruti says there is only one Self - and yet there seem to be so many individuals struggling to gain freedom from the quagmire of Life. Who are these individuals then who are struggling? And suppose even if one of them gains the Knowledge of Truth (Self or Brahman) and gets liberated (so to say) - His liberation still does not lead (as it should if the theory of One Abiding Self were True) to others' liberation. Each one seemingly has to fight his or her own battle to gain freedom from Unreal. This seems to be a source of big confusion with respect to the Vedanta Shastra. Also - if the Self is eternal (Reality is eternal) so will the Unreality be because the latter derives its existence from the former. If such is the case one will never truly get rid of unreality for good. Then what is the use of such Knowledge for it seems incapable of truly eradicating the Unreality for good?

So we have brought in two questions - Why does the ONE ABIDING SELF appear in as much variety as we all see. And given that Unreality draws its existence from the Real, the Real being eternal, the Unreal should as well be so and then if this be the case - there is to be no ever lasting freedom.

Let's take the first point first - How does the One Self appear to be so many? In fact as has been mentioned in so many places - Who is it who is born, Who is it who is getting confused, Who is it who is asking all these questions, Who is it who is feeling the bondage, Who is it who is suffering --- these are the questions that need to be answered foremost. Some people say that due to Maya - the Self (Brahman) IMAGINES itself in bondage and then through Knowledge finds the answer to its questions and becomes free from suffering. If this were to be the case then if the Self has actually become many - there cannot be a scope for it to become Self again. For it has changed already. And once it has changed, it has lost its fundamental character. It is no longer what it used to be. So we have to discount the theory that it is the SELF that has become many or alternatively that there are many individual Selves (seen in the many indivduals seen around) that are struggling to be free. So what is the many we see? Shastra says that the MANY that we individuals see is the imagining of the Individual itself. The Individual is distinct from the Self - just as the Snake is from the Rope even though the Snake needs the Rope for its existence. Similarly - the individual Jiva is an adhyasa over the Primordial self. Now in the Rope Snake example the Rope doesn't know that it has become Snake nor does the apparent Snake of of itself know that it is appearing superimposed upon a rope. There is a third entity - the observer who is seeing all this. If the observer is not there - the Rope and the snake have no existence. Thus it is the observer who is lending reality to the existence of both the snake and the rope. However in the case of Jiva and Brahman - the Jiva appears superimposed on the Brahman. So the question arises: Who is it who is seeing this superimpostion of the Jiva over the Brahman? Here the answer becomes tricky - the Jiva is a superimposed entity and is fundamentally non-existent. So it by itself should not be capable of thinking that it is superimposed on some real thing. And as far as the real thing is concerned - The Brahman itself - it is not capable of thinking as we human beings are (through the faculty of mind). So verily the question WHO is the thinker here? Jiva being unreal cannot think. And the Brahman, while being real, cannot think as it does not have the means to think. So who is it who is thinking of himself as being a Jiva - a limited being - with a multitude of problems etc? This is the heart of the Vedanta Vichara (Vedanta Enquiry) in my opinion. Once this question is answered all others would fall in place. Shastra says that Jiva is unreal - it is Kalpita. It also goes on to say that the mind is unreal as well. And it is verily the mind which is asking all these questions. I mentioned earlier that the Jiva thinks through the mind. But I also raised a point that Jiva is unreal. So it cannot think. But one unreal thing can think through another Unreal thing and that is exactly what happens here...the mind being unreal in the Jiva is the one that lends the capability to the Jiva to think. Indeed it is the mind which creates the primordial confusion. And that's how the Jiva thinks that it is born, that it is the doer, that it is suffering that it needs salvation and so on. Both are unreal. And both have the Brahman for their Adhishthana. Here, unlike in the rope snake example where the observer is distinct from both the rope and the snake, both the observer and the observed have no fundamental reality. Just like one sees the snake superimposed on the rope, so the Jiva sees itself. And just like the observer accords reality to the kalpita snake in the rope, so the Jiva accords reality to itself. That the jiva is able to do so (meaning that it appears at all) is because the Adhishthana (Brahman just like the Rope) is a REAL entity. Were the Brahman (Rope) to be unreal, there would be no Jiva (Snake).

The foregoing being the case however there seems to be no escaping for the Jiva because given that the Adhishthana is real, the Unreal should keep appearing and so the Jiva would keep appearing. The difference however is that once the Jiva realises its source of reality and its own unreality, there is no more confusion and the Jiva itself vanishes - just as the snake does when the knowledge of the rope dawns on the observer. The Jiva is seen no more. So long as Ignorance prevails - the Adhaysa seems real and the Jiva continues its existence. So to say that this bondage or suffering is never-ending because it draws its existence from a real adhishthana (brahman) is not true.

The next question is: are there multiple Jivas - as it seems to appear because we see so many people around. The straight answer (and this requires Shraddha (Faith) for it cannot be proved by any known means of knowledge avaialable to us) is that just as the Jiva itself is Kalpita (in its own imagination) the other Jivas that it sees are equally Kalpita. The superimposition does not stop at itself alone but extends to create verily the whole universe the Jiva sees around itself. That's why it is said that the entire Universe - not just the Jiva - is actually unreal - being no more than kalpana (imagination) of an essentially Kalpita Jiva. The adhishthana - or the Supreme Self is the one abiding truth and is the substratum of all the variety seen around us. So the Jivas that are in the thralldom of ignorance will continue to be so till the Kalpita Jiva realizes the Truth of its existence and relinquishes its unreal existence.

Continuing the enquiry further, Jiva being unreal - one might ask, is it capable of grasping Reality? And what happens to other Jivas when one of them obtains the Knowledge of the Truth. This question was raised earlier as well. Does the emancipation of one lead to emancipation of all because they are all essentially one? The answer is that while, essentially there is only one Self, the variety of Jivas seen around is with respect to the Jivas themselves. The Jiva itself is seeing the variety. The variety is in Jiva's eyes alone. Once the Jiva vanishes - so does the variety - BUT with respect to that Jiva that has vanished. The other jivas that are yet to achieve the knowledge will continue to see the variety. So many people ask this question - do Self-Realized people see the world? It is useless to ask these questions - because what we are terming as Self-Realized is merely in the imagination of the person who is asking the question. There is only one supreme reality - even self-realization, the attempt to realize the Self, and Self-Realized Individuals are as much imaginary as the Jiva itself.

With respect to the Jiva that attains the knowledge of the Truth, there are no more Jivas for it to deal with - because in reality there are no jivas to begin with anyway. They were Kalpita from the start and their disappearance duly follows the appearance of True Knowledge. But for those who are not yet there, the thralldrom continues. This should hopefully answer the truth of Variety that's seen around us and also how emancipation of one-self affects the emancipation of others.

All this talk of Emancipation, Freedom, Bondage, Suffering, Life and Death has to be realized to be from the point of view of the one who is born in the first place - viz the Jiva. Since the Jiva itself is in merely in its own imagination, there is actually no birth and hence no nothing of the sort we are discussing here. There is no abiding reality in all that has been discussed - from the point of view of Brahman. Brahman is unaffected by all this drama. It alone is the supreme reality, one without the second.

To strike at the heart of all Vedantic Vichara, people raise a fundamental question - How do we know Brahman exists and is the Supreme reality and all that we see around (ourselves included) are mere imagination of our own self? How can we believe that we ourselves being unreal, there is something real (apart from we imaginary beings) that exists? How can unreality of its own accord know itself to be unreal? This is the debate. An unreal thing that has no existence has caused all this drama. Knowledge of Truth alone is capable of relieving the unreal being from the trauma of life. This needs to be understood meticulously - from the point of view of Brahman - all this is verily non-existent. From the point of view of Jiva - all the variety seen is existent - BUT only so long as the Knowledge does not dawn upon the Jiva. As soon as knowledge dawns all the drama comes to an end. Can Knowledge dawn on an essentially unreal Jiva? The bare truth is that both the Knowledge and the Jiva are kalpita. This might leave you gasping for breath. The truth is that the since the struggle itself is unreal, so is the notion of Knowledge causing deliverance. There is no struggler to begin with (for real that is...imaginary struggler is surely there and is the subject of all this verbal exposition so far) so there is no emancipation and equally no emancipation-inducing knowledge. All this is contrived, make believe stuff. So why does it all appear so real and why do we have to consistently keep up our fight against ourselves...and the answer is that Try and realize the Truth...all these questions will vanish like water vanishes as vapor.

And yes, who is helped in the process is the next question? Because the one who was asking all the questions, one who was in samsara, bondage suffering etc ceases to be. And the one that is eternal never asked the question in the first place....This vaccum is too great for many of us to fathom. The fact that this surreal drama is mere imagining of an imagined being and that there is no reality to it and that knowledge leads to its annihilation and leaves what was there all along (Brahman) is perplexing and mind-boggling. Then why all this struggle? Why this imagining in the first place? There are no answers to these questions. How can we answer something that cannot have an answer. How can you determine the sex of a child born to a barren woman? How can you find water in the Desert? It simply is inconceivable. So are you in bondage? Are you suffering? Are you happy? Are you rich, poor, tall, short, ugly, beautiful? If you want to think that way, no body can stop you. But till the time you continue to lead your life in ignorance, all these questions will keep haunting you. Once you realize the Truth, that's true deliverance.

Hari Om...