MAYA AND MULA MAYA

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

[Padanamaskaram Swami, Shri Kishore ram asked the following questions:

I have couple of queries on discourses,

Q1. I am confused between Maya and Mula Maya. In some discourses Swami mentioned God/Parabrahman is charged only with Pure Awareness which is Mula Maya and is totally absent/not charged in Maya. But in Divine Discourse - 3, Swami mentioned the unimaginable God is charged both in Mula Maya (Brahman) and Maya (Ishwara). Can you please clarify the confusion?

Q2. What is the need for Unimaginable god to exist/charge in Mula Maya? If suppose, Mula Maya not charged with Parabrahman what will happen? Will Maya exist?

Q3. In Vedas it is mentioned, For God the creation is like a day dream so it is his imagination. Then, is there anything real for God other than himself?-Anil]

Swami replied: [reply of 1&2] Parabrahman is the original unimaginable God. This unimaginable God wished to create this world for entertainment as per the Veda. This wish is the source of creation. The creation or the world is Maya (Mayamtu prakrutim... Gita). Mula maya means the source (Mula) of this world (Maya). The unimaginable God associated with the original wish to create this world is called as Brahman. In the absence of Mula maya, we cannot understand anything about the unimaginable God. But, now we are able to understand God through the medium of wish or awareness. The three sacred preachers (Shankara, Ramananuja and Madhva) started the philosophy from the point of Brahman only because the devotee should understand God when the word God is uttered. If they start from the unimaginable God, who cannot be understood at all, the philosophy cannot proceed further. Knowledge to start with knowable item only. If you start with unknowable item, the beginning itself starts with ignorance. Therefore, the original pure God is unimaginable and unknowable, who did not have any wish.

This original wish is no doubt awareness. Awareness is only process or work and is not an item. When you are walking, you cannot say that yourself and walking are two different items. The process of walking is generated and maintained by you during walk. The walk disappears when you stop walking. Therefore, walk is only relative item and not an absolute item equal to walker (God) in existence. The unfortunate misunderstanding in this point is to treat the awareness as the same awareness that exists in this world. The wish of God is as good as any wish in this world. But, the generation, maintenance (awaken) and dissolution (deep sleep) of the wish or awareness observed in the world is based on the function of nervous system with the help of nervous energy. The stage of Mula maya before the creation of the world does not allow the matter (nerves) and energy (work or function of nerves). Matter and energy are the parts of the world or maya. Mula Maya exists before creation of the world and hence Mula maya exists without matter and energy. Hence, Mula maya is unimaginable in its background. Since Mula maya has relative existence only, you need not worry about mula maya to become a second unimaginable item. Mula maya is also maya in the sense that both are relatively existent and do not exist in absolute sense (Ya maa). Maya also means wonderful since it is different from existent and non-existent. There is no mutual contradiction because the existence is negligible and can be treated as almost non-existent. The conclusion is that the unimaginable God can wish even though the functioning nervous system does not exist in Him and thus, such wish is wonderful. The human being wishes due to the existence of functioning nervous system in him. In both, the resulting product (wish or awareness) is one and the same. Ash can be generated in a factory. The same ash is also generated by a divine person by moving the hand. Ash is one and the same in both cases. But, there is lot of difference in the background. Due to oneness in the products, you should not say that there is oneness in the backgrounds also. The unimaginable God can wish due to His unimaginable nature even without the presence of functioning nervous system. Due to oneness in the wish, both the backgrounds are misunderstood as one. God wishes and the human being also wishes. The confusion is that since both the wishes are one in nature, God and human being are also one! The confused Advaita says that the factory and divine person are one and the same since both created the same ash. The Vedic statement that says that God is exceptional knowledge (Prajnanam) means that God comes in human form to preach the exceptional knowledge. Here also, the exceptional knowledge is reduced to mere awareness and thus, even a foolish human being or animal also is treated as God. Awareness can be also taken in the initial stage to mean that God does not come in inert form. But, you should not stop there since exceptional knowledge is not mere crude awareness. You have to proceed further that God comes in human form having knowledge and should proceed further that God comes as a specific human being having exceptional knowledge. A special jewel (exceptional knowledge) is not an ordinary jewel (normal knowledge) and ordinary jewel is not the crude lump of gold (awareness). You can take these three steps as the steps of specific address. Mumbai (awareness), name of the street (normal knowledge) and house number – (exceptional knowledge) are the three ascending steps with increased specification. The first step (Mumbai) denies that the city is not Delhi. Similarly the awareness denies the inert form. Here, the careful and patient analysis is essential. Otherwise, any one slips in understanding the actual Advaita of Shankara and confused Advaita of the followers.

Mula maya is the cause and maya is effect. The effect contains the nature of the cause as the background and projects a different nature. Mud is the cause and pot is the effect. As soon as you see the pot, the specific shape attracts you and the hardness of mud stands in the background. Similarly, the unimaginable nature of the background of Mula Maya stands as the background of the creation (world) also and imaginable nature is projected externally. Maya is relatively existent with respect to mula maya. Mula maya is relatively existent with respect to unimaginable God. The imaginable world (maya) is relatively existent with respect to its source i.e., mind or awareness (mula maya). In human being, Mula maya is the ultimate background, which has no further background for it. In this world, mula maya is relatively existent with respect to the unimaginable God and God is the ultimate background. The real world and the imaginary world are thus totally different from the view of ultimate basis. In the imaginable world, the items are linked to each other and links are imaginable. The link between the unimaginable God and the imaginable nature of mula maya and further the imaginable world is also unimaginable since the link between imaginable and unimaginable does not exist in the imaginable world for the sake of understanding. The process of generation of ash by the divine person is imaginable. The association of unimaginable God (as ruler) with maya (as the ruled world) is taken as Eshwara.

Maya or the world is not charged by the unimaginable God because the unimaginable God exists beyond this world. God enters a human being to become human incarnation and this is exception and is different from the above concept since God enters the human being by His will. If God exists everywhere in this world due to the concept of cause and effect (mud exists everywhere in the pot), God becomes imaginable world and His such pervasion is bound by the concept of cause and effect and not by His free will. Hence, God is not pervading in this world. The Veda says that no part of this world is God (neti neti). Hence, Maya is not charged by the unimaginable God. But, in the case of mula maya, the wish is charged by God since it is directly generated from God. Maya is directly generated from mula maya and hence maya can be said as indirectly generated from God. The same Brahman (unimaginable God charging the awareness or wish) becomes Eshwara to rule the imaginable maya. Eshwara means the possessor of maya (Mayinam tu... Gita). The unimaginable God charges mula maya to be called as Brahman. Such charged awareness is the mediated God and is taken as the starting point called as Brahman. Since Brahman becomes Eshwara, the unimaginable God exists in both Brahman and Eshwara. The unimaginable God with the wish to create the world is Brahman and the same Brahman to rule the created world projected from mula maya is called as Eshwara. Hence, it is justified to say that the unimaginable God charges both Brahman and Eshwara. This does not mean that the unimaginable God charges the maya. Mula maya is also imaginable as wish but unimaginable in the background since its background is the unimaginable God. Maya is imaginable since its background is mula maya, which has the imaginable nature as wish. Therefore, maya and mula maya are similar in the imaginable nature. The difference is that mula maya is directly backed by the unimaginable God and maya is directly backed by mula maya. If you leave this difference in the backgrounds, mula maya is often termed as maya in view of the common imaginable nature. On this basis only two items are mentioned: 1) The unimaginable God as the Creator called as Brahman (awareness charged by unimaginable God for the sake of introducing God as the starting point) and 2) Maya as the creation. The basic subject does not change due to change in the adopted nomenclatures.

3) Mula maya or the awareness is the cause and the world is just imaginary world with respect to God emerging from His awareness. The difference between the real world and the awareness of God is exactly similar to the difference between the imaginary world and the awareness of the human being. The human being is a part of the imaginary world of the God. The imaginary world of human being is different from the real world of God. The human being is not God because the real world of God can never become the imaginary world of human being. The real world is said to be a day dream or imaginary world of God because the ignorance cannot exist with God like the ignorance of the human being in the night dream. You should always differentiate the awareness of human being and the awareness of the God based on the backgrounds and should not treat both as one and the same based on their imaginable natures. If this one precaution is preserved, there is no confusion. The king speaks. You also speak. Based on the common oneness of the processes of the speech, you cannot be the king.