Worldly and Divine Illusions

Note: This article is meant for intellectuals only

O Learned and Devoted Servants of God,

[Shri Buchholz asked: God wants this world to run peacefully??... every thing happens after God’s allmighty will - therefore things are exactly as God wants them to be. Moksha is just liberation from the worlds of maya - not from the will of God!

Sandilya-Upanishad Chapter 3: Maheshvara, who is black and yellow, reign with Avidya, Mula-Prakriti or Maya, who is red and black und coexists with him. (so Mahamaya is a higher form of Parvati! It solves Maya up. By, Buchholz]

Swami replied:- The unimaginable God (Parabrahman) becomes the first energetic incarnation, called Eshwara through mediation by first created energetic body. The Mahāmāyā is the unimaginable power of the non-mediated Parabrahman. The same unimaginable power or Mahāmāyā exists with Ishwara, which is called as Māyā. Parabrahman and Ishwara are one and the same and Mahāmāyā and Māyā are also one and the same. The difference is only in the possessor of the power in the sense that the non-mediated God is unimaginable and invisible whereas the mediated God is also unimaginable but visible. Shankara calls this unimaginable power of Parabrahman as Mahāmāyā (Mahāmāya viśvaṃ bhrāmayasi Parabrahmamahiṣī—Soundarya Laharī). He called the original non-mediated unimaginable God, who can’t be expressed by words (since not even imaginable) as Parabrahman (Mounavyākhyaprakaṭita Parabrahma tattvam— Dakṣiṇāmūrti Stotram). In the Gita, we find the mention of same unimaginable power of Parabrahman (Mahāmāyā) as Māyā. Ishwara or Datta is Parabrahman mediated by first energetic body and Krishna or any human incarnation is the same Ishwara mediated by materialized human body for the sake of human beings.

The power of Krishna is the power of Datta, called as Maya. This Māyā of Krishna or Datta is the same Māmāyā of Parabrahman. This means Krishna is Datta and Datta is Parabrahman. The energy-medium of Datta is the same matter-medium of Krishna because matter is condensed energy. Energy is gross whereas the space is the subtle energy. Hence, space appears as energy and energy appears as matter. Space is not nothing since it appears as something. The unimaginable God appears as space or subtle energy (adhyāsa or superimposition). To whom all these illusions are happening? Who is seeing the space as soon as it is created? The unimaginable God Himself is the spectator, who is with a desire to create world for entertainment. This means that God Himself appeared to Himself as space, gross energy, gross matter etc! Such illusion is called Mahāmāyā or Maayaa. Is this Māyā exactly the same illusion of a person seeing rope as serpent in twilight? Not at all. The reason is that the person is not having the knowledge of rope while he sees it as serpent.

The illusion of the person is called as avidyā whereas the illusion of God is called as Māyā (Mahāmāyā). In Māyā, God is having the knowledge of the ultimate truth, which is Himself. When the person sees the rope, the serpent is disappearing. In the case of God, this rule is not applicable because God is always having the knowledge of self and in spite of this self-knowledge, the creation continues to appear clearly to God. You can’t compare this situation of God to a person seeing the rope and imagining it as a serpent without the knowledge of rope. The difference is that God is seeing the creation as real as the person under illusion sees the serpent on the rope. If you come to the point of reality of the world seen by God, it is also illusion. But, if you come to the point of self-awareness of God, it is not illusion. This means that God has taken the merit of avidyā (that creation appears as perfectly real to give perfect entertainment) and avoided the defect of avidyā (that self-awareness is absent based on which the creation appears as real). Hence, there is lot of difference between Māyā of God and avidyā of the soul. The only similarity is that the non-existent item appears as fully existent. When non-existent subtle energy appears as existing space (subtle energy) to God Himself, what about the case of the soul, which is the tiny part of the creation (space or subtle energy)? For the soul also, the space is existing.

Now, in this point also, there is vast difference between God and soul. For God, only the non-existent space appears as existing space. For soul, the space is fully existent and not non-existent in essence. For God, only the space is non-existent in essence. For soul, space is as existent as the soul since soul is a tiny part of space. Hence, space is essentially non-existent for God whereas the same space is essentially existing for the soul. The common point here between God and soul is that space appears real. Then, why can’t I say that space is real and hence, appears to be real for both God and soul? Space is as real as the soul and hence, the soul can’t play with the space, which is in equal plane of reality with the soul. But, God plays with the space by showing the infinite space in His finite mouth! The soul can’t do this. God has done this because God is essentially real whereas the soul is essentially unreal. Miracle is only possible when the doer of the miracle is real and the other material of the miracle is essentially unreal. The soul thinks itself as God and thinks that this world is unreal. If the world is unreal for the soul, the soul can do the miracle very easily as God does (Netaro'nupapatteḥ— Brahma Sūtra). The impossibility of miracle for the soul clearly proves the impossibility of soul being God. Krishna is also a soul, but, the unimaginable God entered Krishna and merged with him to become human incarnation. The miracle done by Krishna is the miracle done by the unimaginable God existing in Krishna in merged state. Since the merge is perfect, we can say that Krishna has done this miracle. There is no difference between Krishna and the unimaginable Parabrahman. Hence, we call Krishna as Krishna Parabrahman, which means that Krishna Himself is Parabrahman.

We can say without a trace of hesitation that the unimaginable (naturally invisible) Parabrahman became the visible–imaginable Krishna. The sages worshipping Parabrahman during millions of births became Gopikas to worship Krishna as Parabrahman since they realized that this imaginable–visible Krishna is that unimaginable–invisible Parabrahman. When Parabrahman became Datta, the Parabrahman merged with the energetic body of Datta. When Datta became Krishna, Datta or Parabrahman merged with the materialized human body. Treating the merged energetic body as Parabrahman is the first step for which one million births passed for sages. To treat the human body as Parabrahman (or Datta), another million births passed for sages and finally they discovered the human incarnation, Rama as Datta or Parabrahman. In the next birth as Krishna, the sages were given full opportunity to serve Datta or Parabrahman because Rama had to act as an ideal human being. The reason is that in the first step, it is very very difficult to believe that Parabrahman (unimaginable God) became the imaginable–visible energetic incarnation, called Datta. In the second step, it is still more very very difficult to believe that Datta or Parabrahman became the other energetic incarnations (Brahmā, Viṣṇu, Śiva etc.). In the third step, it is infinitely very very difficult to believe that Datta or Parabrahman became the human incarnations (Rāma, Kṛṣṇa etc.).

In the phase of Māyā, God appears as this creation, but, this illusion is limited to God only and actually this illusion is divine with full self-knowledge without any trace of ignorance about either the self or about the object seen as creation. You can compare this divine illusion with the worldly illusion in which a beggar is thinking himself as a king. In the worldly illusion, neither the beggar became the king nor the king appears to the beggar with all precious jewels and both these points are well known to the beggar. In the case of divine illusion, the king appears with all precious jewels, God becomes the really appearing king, but, God knows fully that He alone is existing and the king is essentially non-existing. In the case of worldly illusion, the beggar did not really become the king (really, God did not become creation), king is not really appearing to the beggar (but, creation is really appearing to God) and beggar is with self-awareness (God is also with self-awareness).

Now, the only difference is that king is not really appearing to beggar whereas creation is really appearing to God. In the case of rope appearing as snake, the spectator is not rope. Three items exist here, which are rope, snake and spectator whereas two items only exist in another example, which are beggar and king only. In the case of example of three items of worldly illusion, ignorance of the object (rope) exists with the spectator whereas in divine illusion, ignorance does not exist with the spectator–God. Hence, there is no exact simile to the divine illusion (Māyā), which has no trace of ignorance of truth whereas all the worldly illusions (avidyā) are with ignorance only.

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