WORLD AS PURE ILLUSION

The Ultimate Reality is Brahman, or Cosmic Self, but the perceived world is Mithya, or an illusion, avows Adi Shankaracharya. It does not have any independent existence, other than as a Maya, or illusion of Brahman, or Ultimate Reality (Brahma Jnanavali Mala, (20), Adi Shankaracharya). Maya (illusion) plays with Avidya, or ignorance, by blurring the subject with objects, or Atman with the phenomenal world. Duality, according to Swami Sivananda, consisting of subject and object, is a creation of the mind and the sensual nerve senses. In deep sleep, one has no experience with the world because there is no mind. This clearly shows that there will be a world only if there is a mind and that the mind alone creates this world. This world, he says, is a play of colours and sounds. This sensory universe is a complex interaction of Maya, or illusion, the mind, and the nervous system. Their jugglery keeps the false show going. One enjoys swimming in the transience as long as the sensual nerves of olfactory, gustatory, auditory, tactile, visual, and vestibular are active. When these senses become inactive due to disease, sickness, old age, or other factors, a person becomes lost and disconnected from reality. The world that appears to be real to the perceiver and the perceived is due to Maya (illusion) or Avidya (ignorance) and their jugglery through the mind and nervous system, which obscures the true nature of Reality, or Absolute Existence. The world is constantly changing, and anything that changes is considered temporary and, therefore, not ultimately true or real in the absolute sense. This does not imply that the world is nonexistent; rather, it suggests that our perception of it as merely a collection of separate, material objects is illusory. Understanding this illusion requires recognising that the true reality of the world is pure consciousness rather than mere phenomena, and this realisation can lead to freedom from suffering by transcending both the ego and the limitations of the finite mind.

1. Outline 

 The mind creates the phenomenal world, and it also deconstructs it into its illusionary state when it is controlled by Atmic (Self) discipline. An uncontrolled mind fosters an ego that believes in its own doership and in the concept of causality. As long as there is faith in causality, Swami Sivananda emphasises, the world is eternally present. If this faith is destroyed, the world becomes non-existent. Things that are nonexistent at both the beginning and the end do not necessarily exist in the present. Objects are all like ordinary illusions, though regarded as real. Swami Sivananda teaches that in deep sleep, there is no experience of the world, as there is no mind. In Samadhi, or the super-conscious state, there is annihilation of the mind, so no world. In an uncontrolled mind, the world appears; in a subdued state of mind, it disappears. A liberated sage, according to Swami Sivananda, perceives no world at all. For a man of discrimination, this world is either an illusion or unreal. Just as the snake in the rope vanishes when a lamp is brought, so also this world, which is mere appearance or superimposition, disappears when one receives illumination from Atman, or Self. The perceived reality is conditioned by the body-mind-intellect complex to provide a distorted reflection to our perception. It is not the ultimate truth but a deceptive or temporary construct, often explained by concepts like the illusory nature of the material world, the impermanence of individual existence, or a perceived disconnection from a deeper, eternal spiritual reality. Sage philosopher Swami Krishnananda says that the unconsciousness of the existence of a Universal Reality is called 'Avidya', and the incapacity to distinguish between the Universal Reality and the appearance of the world is 'Aviveka'. All these objects of the world are only variations, formations of a single substance, and, therefore, these variations and forms and diversities are not true. Gold has never become the bangles; it is still gold only, looking a little round. Similarly, Swami Krishnananda explains, the one substance looks like the world because of the shape it has taken through space and time. And we are also included in the various shapes that it has taken. Therefore, neither we exist nor the various forms exist. It is one substance that exists. We should not unnecessarily go on clinging to the form, shape, or name as if it were something else. It is like clinging to a chain and a ring or a particular ornament, forgetting that it is gold. It requires deep meditation. Whatever we see with our eyes, including our own selves, actually is a form of the one Universal Substance.When we think, actually the Universal Substance is thinking.We are not thinking; we are not doing anything, nor are we moving from place to place. Nothing is happening, really speaking. It is in the dream world of the Cosmic Consciousness, and, therefore, it is one thought that is operating. The Universal Thought is thinking the whole cosmos, so we are not thinking. The idea that we are thinking must go away from our minds, because we are included in that universal thought; therefore, we are not thinking about it. Rather, it is thinking us. Instead of us thinking about it, it is thinking us – the other way around. So, all our thoughts should be melted down into one single universal thought, and we should think nothing else but that. Then we will find that the world will vanish; it won't be there afterwards. But deep meditation along these lines should be carried on day and night.

Bhagawan Sri Ramana Maharshi teaches that for the Self-realised, the world is accepted as unreal, similar to a dream, but not non-existent. In a dream, the world's reality and validity are experienced in a dream but dissolve upon waking. It is an illusion because it appears as a separate, external reality, rather than being understood as the one true Self, or Brahman. The way to overcome this illusion is not to renounce the world but to realise the underlying reality, Atman, or Self, by shifting one's outward perception to inward through self-enquiry and knowledge until one awakens to Self-consciousness from ego-centric consciousness emanating from the transience of the body-mind-intellect conundrum. Sri Ramana Maharshi says the world is not independently real but a manifestation of Brahman, or Cosmic Self.

2. Scriptures 

 Scriptures declare that this world is Manomatram-jagat and Manahkalpitam-jagat. 

That is the way Yoga-Vasistha (3.3.25) elaborates in detail 

manomātraṃ yadā brahmā na pṛthvyādimayātmakaḥ |

manomātramato viśvaṃ yadyajjātaṃ tadeva hi ||3.3.25 ||

As Brahma, the creator of the universe, is merely of the form of the mind and not composed of any material substance, so the world, being the product of the eternal mind, is of the same nature as its original archetype. It is this one and the self-same spirit, Yoga-Vasistha (4.11.42) declares, which is the body of God, that is called the transparent Brahma. It is omnipotent and everlasting and constitutes the whole world appearing as distinct from it.

Yoga-Vasistha (4.11.18) bluntly speaks in this line.

mano jagati bhūtānāṃ dve śarīre'tra sarvagam |

mana eva śarīraṃ hi yenedaṃ bhāvyate jagat || 4.11.18 ||

Of the two bodies of men, the mind alone is ubiquitous and the leader of the outer body of animated beings. The mind, therefore, is the true body, which reflects and makes us conscious of our existence as well as that of the exterior world.

Yoga-Vasistha (4.11.18-29) explains the making and unmaking power of the mind. The mind is the true body of man. It is the mind that moulds the body according to its will, just as the potter makes the pot as desired (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.19). It frames a form and features the person that it did not have before, and it destroys one's existence in a moment. The imagination creates an image out of nothing (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.20). The power of the mind to create apparent realities from absolute unreality is well known to everyone, as seen in dreams, delirium, misconceptions, fallacies, and various errors, including visions of magic cities and talismans (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.21). The Divine mind created the world from its thought; therefore, the phenomenal is neither a substance on its own nor non-existent, as it exists within us. Gloss. It is therefore anirvachaniya, or undefinable (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.23). The mind is part of the body and spreads itself in its thoughts and desires into many forms; so does one mind appear as many in many individuals (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.24). It is from the variety of its desires that the mind perceives and produces varieties of things, such as pots and pictures and the like (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.25). The same mind thinks of itself as many by the diversity of its thoughts, such as "I am weak, I am poor, I am ignorant and the like" (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.26). The thought that I am none of the fancied forms which I feign to myself but of that form from whence I am causes the mind to be one with the everlasting Brahma by divesting it of the thoughts of all other things (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.27). All things springing from Brahma sink at last in him, as the huge waves of the wide and billowy ocean rise but to subside in its calm and undisturbed waters below (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.28). They sink in the Supreme Spirit, resembling one vast body of pure and transparent, cold and sweet water, and like a vast mine of brilliant gems of unfailing effulgence (Yoga-Vasistha, 4.11.29).

In a similar vein, Ashtavakra Gita (3.11) pronounces this world as pure illusion and devoid of any interest in it. How should the strong-minded person feel fear, even at the approach of death? It is in the infinite ocean of myself that the imagination called the world takes place. I am supremely peaceful and formless, and as such I remain (Ashtavakra Gita, 7.3). This existence is just imagination. It is nothing in reality, but there is no non-being for natures that know how to distinguish being from non-being (Ashtavakra Gita, 18.4).

3. Remarks 

The world somehow exists, affirms Sage Philosopher Swami Krishnananda, and its relation to Brahman is indescribable. He states that the illusion disappears when one attains knowledge of Brahman. This phenomenal universe is said to be unreal in the sense that it vanishes when Atma-Jnana, or Self-knowledge, arises. If we knew the nature of Brahman, all names, forms, and limits would melt away. When the play of the mind is stopped by conscious effort in Yoga, when the seed of thought is burnt by spiritual wisdom, the tree of Samsara ceases to exist. Does Maya really exist or not? This inscrutable, indescribable Maya cannot be said to exist or not. It is a strange phenomenon which cannot be accounted for by the law of Nature. Maya is Anirvachaniya (inexpressible). It is neither as real as Brahman nor as unreal as a barren woman's son, the horn of a hare, or a lotus flower in the sky. The phenomena created by a magician do not truly exist. However, we cannot claim that they do not exist, as we are aware of the phenomena, albeit only for a brief moment. We are never conscious of a thing that, although non-existent, is like a lotus flower in the sky. The phenomenon known as the universe is similarly imagined to be distinct from Brahman. It is similar to the silver that people often mistake for mother-of-pearl. "We call it Maya, or illusion." Maya is that illusive power of Brahman that makes Anitya (impermanent) appear as Nitya (permanent), Asuchi (impure) as Suchi (pure), Duhkha (pain) as Sukha (pleasure), and Anatman (not-self) as Atman (self)." The world of names and forms completely disappears from a sage's perception. It is an illusion that can be removed only by true knowledge. Yoga-Vasistha (2.1.33) asserts that the world is a creation of volition and loses itself with the absence of our desires, and that it is an accursed and unsubstantial world after all, which is the conclusion arrived at by all sages. It highlights how individuals become trapped in the vortex of the Samsara chakra, or wheel of birth and death, because their own volition that ceases to exist once they realise Brahman, or the Cosmic Self.

-Asutosh Satpathy