Question:
When Brahman appears as a form, Brahman appears to have forgotten its true nature and identifies with the form and called as Jiva. That forgetfulness happens because of the maya shakti of Brahman.
But Brahman is not for forgetful. The nature of Brahman is infinite cognition and maya is subordinate to Brahman. How can Brahman be all knowing and forgetful at the same time?
Sri Prabhuji:
Three analogies can be given to explain this:
1)An actor plays the role of beggar in drama. He plays role so intensely that he forgets himself and starts crying.
In this case has anything really happened to actor ? He forgot it is role and got involved fully.
2)Water appears as wave, bubble, foam – and still remains as water.
3)A person X dreams that he is dream character Y – being kidnapped and killed in dream.
While in dream Y is troubled, X is not at all disturbed. Nothing has happened to X who is sleeping. Everything is happening to dream character Y without affecting X.
Similarly entire manifest world is dream projection (Maya) for Brahman(X). Brahman appears as all dream characters (Y). Dream characters(Y) forget about true nature and
suffer while Brahman (X) is not affected.
When dream character (Y) realizes he/she is (X) – Brahman, dream ends. This ending of dream is called “awakening”.