Shloka 7
vibhūtiṃ prasavaṃ tvanye manyante sṛṣṭicintakāḥ
svapnamāyāsarūpeti sṛṣṭiranyairvikalpitā
Explanation
Most of the people believe that this creation is nothing but power of God. They believe that God created this entire manifestation. Whatever is manifested is power of God or Vibhuti of God. This is the belief system for most of the people that there is a creator. God created all these. But spiritual seekers or those who are seeking the truth, they understand that this creation is Maya or appearance. It is not real.
The creation whatever you see that is the earth, world, sun, moon is not at all real. It is unreal. It is appearance only. There is no reality. The moment you say there is a creation then multiple questions will start arising. Questions like ‘why is there good and bad things? If God has created, then there should be a perfection in creation’. So, like this, so many questions will arise. So, then question would come like ‘If God created this entire creation then is God inside the creation or outside the creation?’. So, these questions will come. ‘So, if you have to create this entire creation, where is the material creation? Did God bring the material for creation? Did God create the material also? Is the creation outside God? Why is there so much of good and bad in this creation?’ So many of these questions arise.
Spiritual seekers understand this creation as appearance or Maya. Just like a dream. Dream appears. In the dream, you can see city, palace, animals, elephant and so many things. The dream appears and disappears. While experiencing the dream, the dream appears to be very real. But the moment the experience is over, the dream is not there.
Spiritual seekers say that this creation is nothing but a dream. And this dream is given a special name called Maya. And they call is as unreal. Because, if God is real or Brahman is real, then having one more reality is not possible. Reality is only one. Brahman or God is infinite and boundless. So, in infinity, another infinity cannot come into picture. So, anything coming out of this infinity, which we can see as the world, is constantly changing.
But the reality or the absolute reality (call God as the absolute reality) doesn’t change. Is this reality same as the unchanging reality or is it different? So, this changing and unchanging reality cannot be same. The changing reality came from the unchanging reality. Has the unchanging reality or Brahman changed into this? Like milk has become curd? In this case, curd cannot become milk again. The Consciousness, which is absolute reality, which never changes is appearing like a world momentarily.
There are some examples in our life. In dream, suddenly I see a dream city. I can see people going around and everything appears real. And suddenly dream disappears. There is no city, and nothing is present now. What was this city made up of? What was this dream city made up of? What is the substance of this dream city? What was it made up of? It appeared to be real to you. If you experienced a cup of coffee there, the coffee experience is real in the dream. If a lion appears, then the lion appears real in the dream. Once you wake up from the dream, then it is not real.
What was the dream made up of? What is it made up of? It is mental stuff. The mind is nothing but thoughts. There is no solid entity called mind. Thought is mind. So, a thought appeared as a lion. A thought appeared as a mountain. A thought appeared as a river. All this in the dream state had appeared. Spiritual seekers tell that this entire world is also a mental projection. The waking state experience that we have is similar to the dream state experience.
In dream state, I saw a lion and it appeared real. In waking state, I can see sun, moon, mountains and many more things. All these are nothing but thoughts. Suppose you did not have a thought then will you be able to see the sun? The sun is nothing but a thought appearing in your mind. There is nothing called sun other than the thought. But you can tell “No! No! The sun is outside, and it is gross”. Yes, it is outside. It is gross. Who is telling all this? It is a thought.
Everything that is appearing in the waking state is also a thought. So, this is called as Maya in the language of spiritual seekers. There are other people who are believers who believe that God created this universe. They believe that this universe was created by God. So, spiritual seekers don’t believe when we say that this world is an appearance in the mind and the mind is appearance in Consciousness. The mind is not real, and Consciousness is alone the reality.
You need to understand the term Reality very clearly. Otherwise, you will start getting confused. You need to understand what is unreal first. Unreal is nothing but Maya or Mithya. Mithya is the word used in Sanskrit. Mithya means there is no independent reality. The world appears in Consciousness. If there is no Consciousness, then there is no world. But if the world is not there then Consciousness is still there. Consciousness is the fundamental reality and world is the manifest or appearance because of the Consciousness.
The world has no independent existence other than Consciousness. It is like telling gold ornaments don’t have independent existence other than gold. If there is no gold, then there are no ornaments. But if there are no ornaments, the gold still exists. Ornament is just name and form. Like that, this world has no independent existence other than Consciousness. This is one condition.
‘It is an appearance only. It is not real’. What do you mean by that? When you see the sky, the sky appears blue. Is sky blue? The sky has no color. The bluishness is because of the limitation of your sense organs and that is why it appears blue. Is your experience real? The experience of blueness is real. That means what you are seeing is not reality. So, the experience is not a proof of reality.
When you are in a desert, you see a mirage. You can see a clean drinking water a few kilometers away. Is the experience of water real? The experience is there. But there is no water. There is only sand. So, experience through sense organs is not a proof of reality.
You say that the world is so real because I am experiencing it. Your experience is not a proof of reality. I gave some extreme case like mirage and all. I can give other extreme cases like experience in your dream where you to Paris. In your dream, you went shopping in Paris, went to Eiffel tower and so many things. You have experience but when you wake up, you say it is unreal. Just because I have experience of something, it does not mean it is real.
Experience is useful. We are not questioning the usefulness of any experience. But experience itself is not real. What you experience, is not the proof of reality. This applies to all our five sense organs. Eyes, ears, touch, smell and taste. So, you say that the world is real because I am experiencing it. I can give 10 examples where experience is there, but it is not real.
Another example, you are going in the night and suddenly you saw a snake. Experience of snake is there. You heart starts beating hard and you get palpitations. You start getting scared. And you switch on the torch and see that there is no snake. It was actually a rope. So, let me ask you the question, just because you have experience, can you say something is real? Just because you have the experience?
Q: In the same example, there can actually be a snake and not a rope. And you can get scared. So, how can you say it is not real?
A: I am just giving a counter argument for everything I experience is real. You say, “Because I experience everything, everything is bound to be real”. I am giving counter example ‘Because you experience something, it is unreal’. I am saying experience is not a proof of reality.
Q: But with respect to bluishness of sky, it appears to be blue for all. The experience is same for all right?
A: But is the sky really blue? The appearance of mirage is water for everybody. But Is it actually real? So, the world has no solidity. There is an experience. There is no doubt about it. The experience does not mean it is real. What is real, is your Consciousness. The seer. The seer never changes. The Witness never changes. The witnessed keeps on changing. It is changing based on sense organs. Your sense organs have very limited bandwidth, or it has some limitation. Your eyes can see only this much. Your ears can only hear so much. With that we are trying to sense the world out there with our limited sense organs.
Just because our eyes have limitations, I can see the sky as blue. Because of the limitation in eyes, I see the mirage in the desert. I see water in the mirage. So, seeing is believing is not true for a spiritual seeker. Experience is not a reality for a spiritual seeker. And the best example for this is your dream. In your dream, you experience everything. You experience sun, moon, rain and so many things. You may shiver in rain and all that was there was just a thought.
Now you are experiencing something in this waking state. What is it? I am giving counter examples to say that your belief is not right. Belief is a mistake. It is made unconsciously. That is why people do meditation. They keep telling “I had this experience. I had this fantastic experience. I had this wonderful experience”. Fine. You had an experience. I don’t question it. But did you experience the reality? No. Because all our experiences are limited. They are changing.
Liberation or enlightenment is not an experience. It is going beyond experiences. How it that? We will see.
Pranams
Prabhuji
References:
Mandukya Karika_T7(Shloka 7)_Eng(Experiential Reality is Unreal)_08Dec2018