BRAHMAN AND THE REALITY OF RELATIVE EXPERIENCE

God alone is true; His manifestations as living, beings and the world (Jiva and Jagat) are untrue, i.e. non-eternal.

It is an easy thing to say that the world is an illusion, but do you know what that really means ? It is like the burning of camphor, which leaves no risidue. It is not even like the burning of wood, which leaves ashes behind. Only when discrimination ends, and the highest Samadhi is attained, there is absolutely no recognition of I \ ' thou and the universe.

In the course of his instructions to his disciple, the Guru raised two fingers, by which he meant the duality of Brahman and Maya. Then, lowering one finger, he taught him that, when Maya vanishes, nothing of the Universe remains. Only the Absolute Brahman is.

Brahman, the absolute and the unconditioned, is realised in Samadhi alone. Then it is all silence—all talk of reality and unreality, of Jiva and Jagat, of knowledge and ignorance, is hushed. There remains, then, only ' Is-ness ' (Being), and nothing else. For verily the salt doll tells no tale when it has become one with the infinite sea. This is Brahma-jnana.

Q. How has the delusion arisen of the un-differentiated Atman having differentiated into the individual soul ?

A. The dialectical Advaitin, as long as he relies on the unaided powers of his reason, answers this question by saying, "I do not know. The answer which realisation gives alone is conclusive. As long as you say, " I know " or "I do not know ', you look upon yourself as a person. And as such, you must take these differentiations as facts, not as delusion. When all personality is effaced, one realises the knowledge of the Absolute in Samadhi Then alone are set at rest for ever all such questions of delusion and no delusion, fact and fiction.

As long as you are a person, your Absolute must imply a ' relative \ your Nitya (the Changeless), must imply a Lila (change), your Substance must imply qualities, your Impersonal must imply a ' personal being \ your One must imply ' many \

As long as you are in the plane of relativity, you must admit both ' butter' and buttermilk ',—you must admit both Personal God- and the universe. To explain the analogy, the original milk is Brahman realised in Samadhi, the 'butter' the Impersonal-personal God, and the ' buttermilk ' the universe made up of the twenty-four categories.

Let not the Advaitin say, M My position is the only correct, rational and tenable one ; those that believe in a Personal God are wrong." The personal manifestations of God are by no means less real, but infinitely more so, than the body, the mind or the external world.

No sooner do you talk of Advaita (monism) than you postulate the Dvaita (pluralism). Talking of the the Absolute, you take for granted the relative \ For your absolute, until realised in Samadhi, is at best the correlative of the relative , if not indeed a mere empty word. You cannot possibly put It as It is; for in doing so you cannot but enamel It with a foreign element, that is, with your own personality.

So long as there is the I' in me, there is the Personal God also before me, revealing Himself through various forms of glory, and as the world and living beings.