8. Whatever is described by words and understood by the intellect, and whatever is grasped by the senses and imagined by the mind is not Thy pristine nature. They are all the expressions of Thy power Maya with its three gunas, from whose work of creation, preservation and dissolution Thy being is indirectly cognized.
The word Maya does not mean absence of order. It is not magic. It is indicated by the use of the word ‘pramana’ for the means of cognition. Pramana means the instrument for measuring. Prameya, a derivative of pramana, means that which is measurable or measured. Generally it is considered as the object of cognition. A significant point is that measuring is not possible without determinateness in the measured. Every object has its own structure and determinateness at the cosmological level. But at the ontological level, all is one. At this level, determinateness is transcended.
It is significant that the three words – pramana, prameya and Maya are derived etymologically from the same verbal root ma. The world of cosmology is what is measured and is called Maya (Prakrti) and also the product of Maya. The Supreme Being – Atman – the Brahman is beyond thought, speech and the means of cognition and cannot, therefore, be measured. If what cannot be measured is the Being, what can be measured is Maya. It is important to note that what is not ‘Being’ is not Non-being.
The above analysis shows that the idea of Maya means that the world is an ordered whole according to measure. The question arises as to what is the being of the objects obtained by this measure. The Supreme Being (paramarthasatta) is not an object obtained through this measure. It is basically that which does the measuring and lies behind the act of measuring.
9. Whatever that is manifest as high and low, as objects, instruments, agents, actions, etc, Thou didst exist before them transcending them as the unitary non-dual Brahman, the Cause of all causes.
The Brahman is ontologically prior to everything. IT is, therefore, to be regarded as the origin of everything. The Vedanta Aphorisms define the Brahman as that to which the birth, maintenance and destruction of the world have to be attributed. The Brahman is, therefore, considered the creator, the sustainer and the destroyer of the world.
The world-appearance is said to have the Absolute Brahman as its cause, in the same way as the sky (space) is the cause of the growth of the tree, for the sky does not obstruct its growth. In fact, the Brahman is not an active causative factor.
The Brahman has no initial cause. IT is, therefore, uncreated (anadikarana). IT has no precedent state. IT is not a product. Nothing changes to be the Brahman, nor does IT change to anything else. IT does not undergo modification. The Becoming that arises out of IT takes place without affecting Its very nature (vivartakarana). Vivarta means change without being affected by change. The Brahman is changeless.
10. Salutations to Thee with countless attributes, whose inscrutable Power causes self-forgetfulness and delusion in those controversialists to whom that Power forms the topic of argument and counter-argument!
An aspirant reasons about the Brahman as long as he has not realized IT. One cannot have this knowledge so long as there is the slightest trace of worldliness. The aspirant is to keep his mind aloof from the objects of sight, hearing, touch and other things of a worldly nature. As long as an aspirant is conscious of his body, he is conscious of duality. It is when he tries to describe what he sees, he finds duality. He is to give up his identification with worldly things, discriminating ‘not this, not this’. Only thus does he realize the Brahman as his own inner consciousness.
The aspirant believes that the acts of creation, preservation and dissolution of the universe and all its living beings are the manifestations of Sakti, the Divine Power. By reasoning, he will realize that all these are as illusory as a dream in the sense that they are transient. The Brahman alone is the Reality. All else is unreal. Even this Sakti is very unsubstantial, like a dream.
Though the aspirant reasons continuously, he cannot go beyond the stage of Sakti unless he is established in samadhi. Even when he says that he is meditating, he is in the realm of Sakti, within Its power. The aspirant ultimately realizes that the Brahman and Sakti are identical. If he accepts the one, he must accept the other. It is like fire and its power to burn. It is like the sun with its rays. Thus, the aspirant cannot think of the Brahman without Sakti or of Sakti without the Brahman. One cannot think of the Absolute without the Relative, or of the Relative without the Absolute. When he gets into samadhi, thus discriminating, what he realizes is the Brahman, beyond mind and speech.
The aspirant gives up his identification with worldly things, discriminating ‘not this, not this’. Only then can he realize the Brahman. It is like reaching the roof of a house by leaving the steps behind, one by one. But the realized who is more intimately acquainted with the Brahman realizes that which is realized intuitively as the Brahman is then found to have become the universe and all its living things. The realized sees that the Reality, which is nirguna, without attributes, is also Saguna, with attributes.
The aspirant initially feels that God alone is real and all else is illusory. Afterwards, he finds that it is God Himself that has become the universe, Maya and all living beings.
The process of discrimination involves first negation and then affirmation. The aspirant attains Satchidananda by negating the universe and its living beings. But after the attainment of Satchidananda he finds that Satchidananda Itself has become the universe and the living beings. Every thing is Its manifestation. It is God alone that has become everything. The world by no means exists apart from Him.
