Introduction to Vedanta -Drig Drisya Viveka - Swami Sarvapriyanandaji's lecture in Vedanta society of southern California part 10

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.

The veiling power of Maya is the most powerful, it hides and obscures.  "Why" we are veiled cannot be asked, because if we know that we are veiled, we are not veiled. All causation is within Maya so Maya cannot be known from within Maya. Even the lower animals are nothing but pure consciousness, only their body-mind is a poor reflector of it. They are not fit enough for realization. One of the major purposes of evolution is to come to a body mind step by step that is fit enough for realization of ones true self. The mother nature holds our hand to lead us towards the freedom, through evolution, but we know not. The evolution at a physical level is only an aid to the real evolution - the spiritual evolution. As Swami Vivekananda said, a worm is a Buddha in making.

Evolution or changes is in prakriti, the nature, purusha as the Supreme Self, supreme and pure consciousness is ever free, ever unchanging. To remove the veil of ignorance that is imposed by nature jiva has to assume millions of body minds over millions of life times, until it has a body mind fit enough for realization, viz. human birth. 

The reflected consciousness is also called chidabhasa. The Brahman alone is real and the world of names and forms is Maya. Brahman is there in all experiences. The gross body derives its existence from Brahman, the subtle body derives existence and consciousness from Brahman. To an illumined soul the world exists as it is. When the sun rises the sun's rays fill up the sky at dawn. The moon is still there, but it is at a corner. Likewise to an illumined soul the world of names and forms still exists but the reality behind is manifested more strongly to be deluded anymore. Brahman is the real truth that shines like sun and pure consciousness illumines everything. 

The five that constitutes everything according to Vedanta are - asti or existence, bhati or the shining one, priya or the blissful, the dear one, nama or the names and rupa or the forms. Of these the first three are the Brahman and the last two are in Maya. Brahman is neumenon or the Absolute Truth - the paramarthika satya and Maya is the relative, transactional world or vyavaharika satya. These two are contradictory and yet they coexist as long as there is ignorance. Just as in a desert there is water in the form of mirage and yet the water does not exist to one who knows it to be a mirage, the world that appears to us because of the projecting power of Brahman does not exist when the veiling power that hides Brahman from us is removed through enlightenment. 

Every being is subjected to six fold changes - Jayate or born, asti or exists, vardhate or grows, viparinamate or matures, apakshiyate or decays and nasyate or dies. There is an unchanging reality behind all these changes. The Absolute alone exists when the relative changes or is destroyed.