Introduction to Vedanta -Drig Drisya Viveka - Swami Sarvapriyanandaji's lecture in Vedanta society of southern California part 7

Swami Sarvapriyanandaji's lectures are available on youtube. These are just the my personal interpretations and transcriptions of his explanation of the text of Drig Drisya Viveka. Actual Copyright of the lecture belongs to Vedanta Society of Southern California.

Drig Drisya Viveka is a Vedantic test written by Vidyaranya Swami in 14th century AD. Its an introductory text on Vedanta.

Brahman in Vedanta depicts everything external to the Self, the all pervading consciousness everywhere and the  and Atman is referred to the Self, but in reality both are same. Brahman is Atman and Atman is Brahman. There is no time, space or causation in Brahman/Atman. Atman is everywhere. Atman never comes and goes because all space is within it. It has no beginning and no end as all time is within it. It is not caused by anything - so not effected by causation.

The Atman has five sheaths or coverings - the gross body made of food or annamaya kosha, the subtle body of vital forces, mind and intellect or pranamaya kosha, manamaya kosha and vignan maya kosha., the causal body or the anandamaya kosha. These coverings hide the Atman from being realized.

How did the external universe and mind body came into existence? The Brahman has its power called Maya which is not different from Brahman. Just as fire and its power of burning are not different, the power of Brahman is not different from Brahman. Maya can be said to be existent and non existent at the same time. It exists as long as we are in ignorance. When the ignorance goes and the Brahman is realized, there is no Maya. Maya has got two powers - avarani or the veiling power and the vikshepa or the projecting power. By its projecting power the Brahman projects itself as the external world - the universe, mind, body, external world. The Sanskrit Srusti is from the root Sruj - to project. By its veiling power it hides from us the reality The fact that it is the Brahman that has become everything is this hidden from us by the veiling power. It is the veiling power that is more subtle, more dangerous. We do not discern the reality from what we see because of ignorance which is the root cause behind the veiling power. This is explained in the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna using a beautiful metaphor. Sri Ramakrishna covers his face with a towel and says that now nobody can see him because of the towel. This is the veiling power. The vedantic example of rope at night appearing to be a snake because of our ignorance about the reality is the same veiling power in action. The reality is hidden here as the rope is projected as a snake. The world is the revealed in its true colour to a realized soul. Just as a sky is of blue colour is an optical illusion, so also a realized soul sees that world as it truly is, i.e. Brahman. There is no longer any veiling power for the realized soul. We see a vast water body in a mirage in a desert. When we know it to be a mirage, we still see the water, but the illusion is gone, we now know it to be a mirage. Similarly a realized soul knows that even though universe exists under the domain of Maya, the reality behind is is Brahman. One Brahman has become the universe of many names and forms just as there are many waves in the ocean. The water behind is the same but the waves of names and forms appear on it. We need to learn to distinguish the universe of names and forms from the reality of Brahman. This is known as viveka or discrimination, to discern unreal from real. The bracelets or necklaces are different but the underlying gold is the same. The entire universe of names and forms exist on Brahman or ocean of Sachhidananda as foam exists on the surface of the ocean. A noted physicist talked about quantum foam on an ocean of dark matter. There is thus a very good parallel. Ashtavakra Samhita says that 1) we are a boat on the surface of the ocean of sacchitadananda, moving around by our own wind of causality 2) We are but myriads of waves of names and forms appearing on the ocean of Sachidananda, appearing, playing, separating and dissolving. Underneath there is one ocean of consciousness. Waves are all part of the ocean. 3) We are the part of an ever still and eternally peaceful ocean devoid of any modification. Modifications are but illusions, waves are illusions