Last Updated on May 16, 2021 by astrologerbydefault
The origin is a Singular Eternal Reality.
No one can really can describe this Eternal Reality in the words of this manifested reality /’Maya’.
Maya is taken to mean illusion, which is incorrect. Maya is a Sanskrit word which means ‘not this’. Thus the ‘manifested reality’ called Maya cannot be conclusively proved to be real nor can it be conclusively proved to be un-real. Thus you, your body and the Universe around you is neither illusion nor reality.
The Singular Reality /Parabrahma first gives rise to duality. The first step is the creation of ‘still unmoving energy’ called Purush and the ‘energy in movement’ called Prakruti. Simply put, still energies are called ‘masculine’ and moving energies are called ‘feminine’ (they do not have a gender, there is nothing sexist about all this).
Why does the Singularity differentiate?
What is this first impulse? The first impulse or the origin of this first impulse also cannot be completely described in the words of this Maya. The Nasadiya Sukta (10th mandala 129th sukta of the Rg Ved) gives a background to what this Singularity is like (the first 2 verses) and why did it differentiate (verse 3). There is concept from Sankhya which states that everything that manifests, first exists in seed form before it can be manifested. (e.g. A human does not have horns because he does not have the potential to form horns. But he has the potential to form a hand thus hands are formed. However the human is much more than just the hand. Similarly the One). The Sukta in this first three shloks says that the One has the potential to form several things, and that its Entirety cannot be fathomed.
And the Sukta frames these concepts as questions. It does not want you to blindly follow whatever it says. You are expected to think over it and come to your own conclusions. You may agree or disagree or have no opinion, it is upto you. You are prime. Follow whatever you feel convinced about, remember your Conscience is your only guide. This is the characteristic of only Sanatan Dharm/Hinduism. It is not a religion, you are not expected to follow something because it is written somewhere. Questions are to be asked in the true spirit and answers sought. This is Dharma, the foundation.
Back to Creation. The Light Source emits the Ray. Both are connected, one cannot exist without the other. Though both are the same light, there is a subtle difference between these two. Similarly are the Purush and the Prakruti, these two are in eternal conjunction, same, yet subtly different.
The Purush is the Witness. He observes what is being done by the Prakruti. He is ‘being’, the Still Intelligence. He is the subject. The Purush is not attached to anything nor does he change. Neither does he get involved in or entangled in or moved by whatever is being performed by the Prakruti, he is completely indifferent. He witnesses just because there is ‘something’ to be witnessed. He is not compelled to observe it.
The Prakruti is the object, Spontaneous Motion (she is ‘Sahaj’, ‘Sahaj’ is a very important concept, might write a full post on this later.) She called the ‘Devi‘/ ray of light. She is ‘becoming’ and goes about ‘becoming’ further creation. She plays the Game, Lila, she is called ‘Lalita’, the ‘one who plays’. She does all this out of spontaneity, no other reason. And as she is the Light of the Purush, so, she plays and the Purush observes. There is no requirement for her to perform for the Purush. It just Is. He IS and She IS, because duality exists, no other reason. He is Stillness, She is Spontaneity. This just Is.
She does not observe, she experiences and evolves. She plays with her energy in whichever way possible. There is no judgement, no reason, only energy, actions and further linked actions, all sorts of permutations and combinations. She spontaneously creates the entire experience. There is a fire burning, you see the sparks moving from it spontaneously, ‘playing’. In the micro and the macro levels, i.e. the following are all her energy,
- The body which will experience – the physical body composed of the Sapta-dhatu, the Panch-pran, the panch-kosh etc.
- the organs which will be used to experience – (these are 11, the 5 organs of senses, the five organs of actions and the Aham-kaar, the sense of ‘I’ individuality.)
- The objects of experience (also the subtle seeds of the experience- tanmatra)
- Bhava, the ‘essences’, ‘feelings’ which are necessary to add value to the experience
- And finally the Discriminating Knowledge – this is the one who puts a stop to the experience. The limit of experience. This is spontaneously manifested in Her then she is done ‘playing’.
Thus she creates the individual body and the individual Universe, maintains it and then dissolves it. (Your body and Universe is different from my body and Universe. Every individual soul is linked to an individual Purush-Prakruti combo. The Singularity creates every soul separately.)
Prakruti is not Intelligence. There is only one objective in all her actions, i.e. to spontaneously create the experience which because of their link, the Purush will witness. The Purush is not compelled to witness it. She does just this, nothing else. The Prakruti binds her energies with herself. She is bound in her own manifested creation by the seven forms (Roop) of virtue, vice, dispassion, passion, power, weakness and ignorance. These seven forms are also created by herself.
(These leads to the creation of Karma. She modifies herself and creates new experiences to resolve this karma and then creates even more karma, in a cycle. The karma is then the framework for ‘play’.)
She performs the entire dance of creation, preservation and dissolution. She stops when the Knowledge of Singularity (Ek-Roop) is manifested within herself. She manifests this too. Under the influence of this Knowledge, her outgoing/kinetic energy stops. Now the seven forms of her own bindings over her vanish as if they have never existed. The Purush has witnessed and her performance has ceased. She, the artist, stands still on the stage as He, the spectator, stands unmoving in the viewing gallery. They are still duality, now there is no motive for creation, as there is the Knowledge of Singularity in her.
Now, the perfect Knowledge has been attained, the perfect performance delivered and the witness has experienced it perfectly. The reason why duality was manifested in the first place has been satisfied. But the body and the Universe incarnated by her remains manifested. It is just like a fan, when you switch it off, it still moves for a few minutes before stopping completely. This stage of existence is called Jivan-Mukt. The individual soul remains in the manifested body/Universe but the binding of karma does not exist.
(These are very deep philosophies which are actual experiences. All of us will go through this. I will continue on the same theme in my next post.)
4 responses to “Binding and Release of the Soul”
Sankhya is strongly dualistic while Advaita is strictly non dual. Your posts seem to mix both these two. Can you please clarify? In Advaita there are ‘no individual souls’.
“Every individual soul is linked to an individual Purush-Prakruti combo. The Singularity creates every soul separately.” Again this leads to concept of multiple ‘selves’ or multiple souls. Do you mean the ego by the term individual soul?
By saying Purush is witness and Prakriti is performer you bring up two independent realities. I wrote because you seem to write based on Advaita as well. Advaita and Sankhya are different and cannot be same.
Hi there,
The Advaita, Nirvishesh, Nirgun, Nirakaar, Para, etc is the ultimate reality. This state cannot be described but only experienced.
I will try to write in simple words..
When the Advaita apparently starts Lila, apparent duality/Dvaita is created.
It is like a small essence of the Advaita is apparently made into a Jiv-atma, an “individual soul” which is now going to create its own universe further.
(Apparent Dvaita. But it is still essentially Advaita)
Dvaita can b considered to be Maya too. Maya cannot be clearly defined to be ‘real’ or ‘non-real’. Maya just means “not this”, but what it really is?, it is silent on that.
Dvaita is created from the Non-dual Reality so cannot be ‘completely unreal’ but it is not the actual Non-dual so cannot be considered to be ‘completely real’ either. Thus ma-ya.
Even Krishna clearly states in his Gita that the sadhak should not try to decipher Maya and instead focus on the Non-Dual Self. Only then can he attain the Advaita. Gita is a clear Yog-shastra for attaining the Advaita state. Do read the Bhagvat Gita bhashya by Adi Shankaracharya, He was the first one to write a Bhashya on this Gita. In fact because he wrote this Bhashya, that the Gita became more popular.
You cannot jump into the Advaita without understanding Sankhya. Sankhya is the prelude to the Advaita. And Sankhya always discusses Dvaita with reference to the Non-dual.
The primary quality of a sadhak is ‘vivek’. Understanding Sankhya is necessary to intellectually comprehend the idea of the Advaita.
As far as books are concerned, try to avoid translations and commentaries written in the recent past.
Best is to read books written at least 500+yrs ago or even earlier than that and preferably in the original Sanskrit. Translations are ok to some extent, but unless the exact Sanskrit verses are given, the so called translated text is not of much use.
If you have read actual books on Samkhya and Advaita then the basic concept is Satkaryasiddhant.
Try to understand this concept, it essentially talks of the Advaita.
Briefly it means this,
1. The unmanifested state, or the state beyond description is the “cause”. (This would be the Advaita)
2. This ‘cause’ is said to give rise to the ‘manifested effect’ or the ‘describable effect’. The ‘effect which is observed’. (This would be the Dvaita)
3. The substance of the Advaita and Dvaita are the same.
4. The difference is only in the “process” which makes the “cause” create the “effect”. Both the process and the cause are Dvaita or Maya.
5. Sankhya always talks of “observed effect” so very clearly it all depends on the observer. What you observe depends on your power to observe, Vivek.
If you can dispassionately observe, become a Sakshi, you will realise that the “cause” and “effect” are really the same!
There is no duality whatsoever.
In Brahma jnynavali mala, Adishankarachayra clearly tells the sadhak to bring in the “Aham sakshi” bhaav in him to get Moksh.
This is the beauty of the Sankhya, it essentially talks about nothing but the Advaita.
Every granth of Sanatan Dharma will always talk only of Advaita, because the ultimate reality is only Advaita.
So do read more genuine books preferably in Sanskrit and do more of your personal spiritual practice so that you can also experience what the texts talk about.
In Advaita there is no causality nor transformation.
Samkhya deals with evolutes of nature and Advaita is strictly about non evolution. In Samkhya one thing becomes another.
Basic problem with samkhya is there are multiple souls and 2 independent realities. Purush and Prakriti. Nature and Souls.
If you know clearly how Samkhya is a prelude to Advaita and both convey the same thing please consider making a post. But I have never seen Advaita masters supporting Samkhya.
Hi there
I have already written a few posts on the Advaita and Sankhya. Will try to write more on this, if I get the time.
Sanatan dharm is Advaita. All genuine granths always talk only of the Advaita.
Sanatan Dharm is attainment of Advaita, nothing short of that.
You mentioned “advaita masters”. And who are these? This would be only the Jivan-mukt, only these are the Advaita. The Jivan-mukt Sat-Guru are very very rare.
“Mystics” and “masters” baffle with fancy words. I don’t think they would be able to explain something as simple as antah-karan panchaka!
If you feel inclined read books by Adi Shankaracharya. He has written on everything. He had experienced everything, he is the Advaita himself.
He has written on the Devi/Prakruti, Purush/Sakshi. Kanakdhara stotra, Sundarya lahiri etc so many! are in praise of the Devi.
The beautiful Saundarya lahiri. If the Devi Prakruti is all that he describes then what are you? Are you the Prakruti? Or are you more than Her? Or less than Her? What then are your attributes? If all attributes belong to the Prakruti? These are very deep questions which have to be contemplated upon.
Adi Shankaracharya set up several temples for deities, Shankar, Vishnu Devi in all Her various forms etc these are under the control of Prakruti.
I think you consider Prakruti to be in the exclusive domain of Sankhya? So would you say that Adi Shankaracharya was an exclusive follower of Sankhya?
He has written about the Advaita. Volumes and volumes! From Brahma sutra, Bhagvat Gita bhashya, Vivekchudamani, so many commentaries on the Upanishads! And all are on the Advaita.
I had earlier written in a comment, the very first concept in Sankhya, Satkaryasiddhant is nothing but Advaita. Do read more on this and try to understand it.
The philosophy is only what the student understands.To understand the depth of Sanatan Dharma the mind has to be silenced. This needs regular spiritual practice. one has to become a true observer/Sakshi.
Sankhya, for me, is a very good tool to create Sakshi-bhav. Only when one becomes a Sakshi does the glimmering of Advaita begin.
All genuine philosophy has to have the Advaita as its source. Else it will not lead you to the highest self-realisation, ie Sadyo-mukti.