l5vara and '**HKfl':'S\YAMI ADVAYANANDA

il#-Maya, which is of the natqre of sattua-rajas-tAmas, is called

ajfrana, avidya, prakrti, pradhana according to the various contexts'

This was the topic of our earlier essayl'

Consciousness conditioned by total ignorance is called ISvara,

and the same consciousness when conditioned by individual igno-

rance is called Praifta. From this total ignorance described rightly

as the total causal ignorance, rise the subtle and the gross bodies.

Consciousness conditioned by both the total causal ignorance and

the total subtle universe is called Hiraryygarbha; the consciousness

conditioned by both the individual causal body and individual

subtle body is nam ed, Taijasa. This very same consciousness when

conditioned by total causal ignorance, total subtle universe and

the total gross universe is termed virat; the consciousness condi-

tioned bylndividual causal ignorance, individual subtle body and

individual gross body is named visva. Let's put these terms I svara,

prajfia, Hiianygarbha, Taijasa, Virat, and ViSva rnathematically:

1.. isvara: Consciousness + total causal ignorance

2. Prajfla: Consciousness + individual causal ignorance

a. Hiraryygarbha: Consciousness + total causal ignorance + total

subtle universe

b. Taijasa: Consciousness + individual causal ignorance + indi-

vidual subtle bodY

i. virat: Consciousness + total causal ignorance + total subtle

universe + total gross universe

Ii. ViSva: Consciousness + individual causal ignorance + individual

subtle body + individual gross body'

' R"f"" t" th" "t*y Maya i the july 2003 issue of Tapoaan Prasad'

August 2003

This introduction, filled with too many terms, is certainly fullof hitherto unexplained concepts. This was only to give a bird,seye view of the various topics and concepts that *e *ill study inthe near future. In this essay our focuJ will be on lfvara andPrajfra.

mAyA. *ad Avtdyd ,Though ignorance is one, it can be seen from two .aspects _

individual and total. In sanskrit, we use the word 'vya;!i'to indi-cate the individual aspect and the word. 'sam-a;ti'I to indicate thecollective or the total aspect. For example, 'free' is the individualaspect (vya;!i) and forest is the colleetive aspect (sama;yi). A dropof water is the 'vya;gi' aspect andiocean is the sam.asti aspect.Book is thre vyagli aspect and libraiy is the sama;li aspect. Onerupee is the vya;yi aspect and a hrindred rupees are the sama;1iaspect! In the same way avidya is the vyasti aspect and mayd is thesamasti aspect of ignorance. we can summarily say that individualmaya is avidya and total avidya is maya. From now onwards, inthe context of ignorance, we shall for convenience of explanation2use mayd for samagti and avidya for vyasti.

-{g,t#g#i#*#ji#Both maya and avidya are associated with Consciousness _ they

have the pure sat-cit-ananda-aastu as the substratum. when wespeak of Consciousness with respe ct to maya as its conditioning,we cail it Isvara; when we talk of the sarne Consciousness withrespect to avidya as its conditioning, we call it prajfia.

The words.saz a;1i and vyasti ate d"rirred

l_llT9i': Wh,"l jh: prefi.x.'sam'is added to,as,, it becomes ,of

total pervasion, andwhen the prelix'tti' is added to 'a.f', the meaning changes to ,of

limiiJ p"*urio.r,.

Though all teachers ol vedanta recognise the concepts of sama;1i and, vyagli some donot accept that the tetms maya and avidyd shourd respectively mean the sama;yi andv)dsti aspects only. They opine that only the contexi can determine whether theseterms are used as samasti or vya.g1i. The-author of this essay arso favours this opinion.Hence the mention of 'convenience

of explanation, in the essav.

Tapovan Prasad 27

But what about pure Consciousness, which is unconditioned?

Does it also have different names? Yes. When we talk of the pure

Consciousness unassociated and unconditioned by maya rt is called

Brahman and the same pure Consciousness unassociated and un-

conditioned by avidyd is called Atman. Please note that pure Con-

sciousness is one and homogeneous. so Brahman is Atman and

Atman is Brahman as both of them are pure Consciousness only. If

thus, Brahman and ,[tman, are one and the same - the pure Con-

sciousness only, then why havg two different names at all, as

though they both are different? This would be the natural ques-

tion of any serious student. These two different names are given

to analyse and differentiate at the cosmic and individual levels the

various concepts of Vedanta llke maya - avidya, Isvara - itva,Hiraryygarbha - taijasa etc. for a student who has begun his intel-

lectual and spiritual journey using the adhyaropa and apavada

methodology of Vedantal.

wit"rg" iI' Isv*li,Even though both maya and avidya are essentially ignorancE,

characterised by sattaa-rajas-tamas, yet because of the association

wlth lSvara and praifia they have different properties. The same

knife in the hands of a doctor saves life but in the hand of the

murderer it takes life!

Vedanta-sara of Sri Swami Sadananda makes this amply clear

ui qqfu: sq€Bqfrrflr frqJd-sf,-sqnr tIy am s ama ; t I h utkr s t a- up a dhit ay a v i S uddha - s at tv a - p radhana'

This collective ignoranc e @dyQ being an adjunct (or conditioning) of theHighest, i.e.,lsiarat, is characterised by the predominance of very pure

sattva.

t F", "dhya-p" ^"d apavada methodology ol vedanta refer to June 2003 issue of

Tapouan Prasad., The word 'prdrya' rgferc collectively to the five prAtla-s: prdna, apana, vyAna, udAna

and. samdna. At the same time, it is also the name for the first of the five prdrya-s.ln

the same way lswara the word, refers collectively to all the three aspects of the

totality: i fvara, Hiranygarbha and nrat, but at the same time it is the name of the first

aspect also.

August 2003

The knife is a potential danger for a child, but not so for itsmother - she uses it in the kitchen for many purposes, with ease.Since maya is wielded by ISvara, it loses its power to bind. Tamasand rajas are overpowered by sattaa, thus making maya very pure.This is technically called visuddha-satna-pradhdna i.e. predomi-nated by pure sattaa. Sattaa being the cause of knowledge andsince mayd is dominated by sattaa, maya cannot delude lsvara.Ifvara remains as the mdyd-pati, the Lord of mayat. He thus re-mains as GOD, the G-enerator of the cosmos, the O-rganiser of thecosmos and the final D-estroyer of the cosmos. He becomes sarvajfia- omnicient, sarveSvara - omnipotent, sarygniyanla - universalcontroller.

Because of being sarvajfia, sarveivara and sarvaniyanta, He isdesignated variously as ISvara, Jagat-karana and Antar-yamin. Letus have a look at Subodhini, a commentary on Veddnta-sara, whichdefines these designations of ISvara briefly and beautifully.

l.l{vara: the Lord or Ruler

S arv e ;aqn j lv anam karma- anurupa-l p sita- phala- datr tv ena | 3v araltiti ucyate - Since He gives the fruits of actions to all the jivas asper their actions (and thus rules and lords over them) He is calledlSvara.

2. Jagat-karatta: the Cause of the Cosmos

"or r^yo ro ry ryo v rvar ta -a [ rh ts thanatvena jagat-kararyam iti vyapadisyale - since ISvara is the verynon-changing substratum of the world characterised by the mov-ing and the unmoving2, he is'called Jagat-karaqta or the cause ofthe universe.

I

g 2

But jlva is 'mdyd-ddsa, the servant oI maya'. In a lighter vein lSvara is GOD arrd jtvais an (under) DOG.Cara-acara i.e. moving and unmoving, is an idiomatic expression in Sanskrit whichjust means 'all that is there', 'the whole without any exception'.

Taoovan Prasad 29

3. Antaryaml: the inner-controller

Sarvesaqn jtvanam antarhydayE sthitva buddhi-niyamakatvEnaantaryaml iti ucyate - staying within the hearts of all jivas, Hepropels and controls the intellect of all. Therefore He is calledAntamamt or the inner-controller.

I . l-:: 1: r rn!"{;fEr6j4i;Now that we have elaborate.d on maya - the samagi aifiana

and ISvara,' let us see avidya - the vyasti aiflana or the individualignorance and prajfla which is the Consciousness conditioned byavidya.

Vedanta-sara explains the nature of avidya:

Fi qfu: FqE BqtRrRqT qfuq-ss-etr-qr IIy arp vy a ; t ih nikr s t a - up a dhit ay a malin a - s at tv a - p r adha na

The individual ignorance (avidya) being the adjunct (orconditioning) of thelowest i.e. jiva, is characterised by the predominance of impure sattva.,r

If maya was a knife in the hands of the wise mother, avidya isthe knife in the hands of a restless ignorant child! In the case ofthre jiva's avidya, sattaa is overpowered by rajas and tamas. Thisimpure sattoa is technically called malina-sattva-pradhanar, i.e.

dominant with impure sattaa. Because of avidya being impure, it

deludes the jtva, binds him to samsara and mercilessly buffets

him up and down in the cycle of birth and death. The iiva is

characterised by alpaifiatva - limited knowledge, anlSvaratva -

absence of lordship, and niyamyakataa - the nature of beingcontrolled2.

And this jlva i.e. Consciousness having avidya as its upadhi(adjunct or conditioning), is called by a single name3, as prajfta -

prayZna ajfta -'one who is mostly ignorant or almost ignorant'.

2 Contrast this with isvara who is samaifia, san)esvara and sarvaniyanta3 Unlike I fvara wlno has got .three different names I Svara, Jagat'karaga and Antar'yamin.

30 August 2003

He gets this name because of his experience of deep-sleep. In deep-sleep all that the prajfia is aware of is only the complete absenceof everything. And because he is aware of this 'absence' he iscalled almost ignorant and not totally ignorant for even the knowl-edge of absence is knowledgel.

ls{4S#F#The essential state of experience for the prajfia is the state of

susupti or deep-sleep where the prajfia exists. with its sole condi-tioning of avidya. Herein, as we have descriled above, who expe-riences nothingness. The essential state of'experience of ISvara iswhen who is with his conditioning 6I *aya. That state is calledpralaya. Compared to susupti or the individual deep-sleep we cansay that this is a cosmic-sleep. Hereih all the inert world of namesand forms and the sentient jfvas lie in an undifferentiated homog-enous state. Just as su;upti or the individual deep-sleep is at theindividual level so too pralaya or cosmic dissolution is at the uni-versal level where all the gross and subtle worlds are dissolvedinto the causal or 'seed' form at the end of each creation.

r Prajfia is also explained as prakargena ajftah exceedingly ignorant'. But here also theword 'exceedingly' is to be taken in the sense of 'almost fuily' and not 'absolutely'.

$'e lt

, l !!t !:r (ii ii,t i

Tapovan Prasad 31

:##gi iLet us summarise all the ideas and the terms we have seen in

this essay in the form of a tabular column.

Aspects ISvara Prdjfla

Upadhi-theconditioning

MayA Avidya

. a. sarvajftatva-totai knowledge a. alpajftatva-limitedknowledge

Nature b. sarveSvaratva-total lordshio b. anlSvaratva-absenceof lordship

c. sarvaniydmakatvd-controller c.niyamyakatvd-natureof all beins controlled

a. ISvara (Lord) a. Prajfta-'almostignorant' or

Designation b. Jagat-kara4a 'exceedingly ignorant'

(cause of the universe) F

c. Antar-yamln (inner-controller)

State ofExperience

Pralaya Susupti

Pureunconditioned Brahman AtmanConscioushess

It is important that one understands these basic conceptsthoroughly, because the essays which follow will be based onthese concepts and these terms will be referred to quite often.

.Th" spd;g" fr"m *hiah d'Gh;"il"'manifests ard called tasanas.

ts ts {Etf$!:r ir r;, l;r lir glrffisffi ,t ariiiJlii iiSwami Chinmayananda

August 2003