It now remains to be seen how Adwaitees account for the origin of mental
states in a particular individual. Apparently the mind of a particular
human being is not the universal mind. Nevertheless Cosmic ideation is
the real source of the states of consciousness in every individual.
Cosmic ideation exists everywhere; but when placed under restrictions
by a material Upadhi it results as the consciousness of the individual
inhering in such Upadhi. Strictly speaking, an Adwaitee will not admit
the objective existence of this material Upadhi. From his standpoint it
is Maya or illusion which exists as a necessary condition of Pragna. But
to avoid confusion, I shall use the ordinary language; and to enable my
readers to grasp my meaning clearly the following simile may be adopted.
Suppose a bright light is placed in the centre with a curtain around it.
The nature of the light that penetrates through the curtain and becomes
visible to a person standing outside depends upon the nature of the
curtain. If several such curtains are thus successively placed around
the light, it will have to penetrate through all of them; and a person
standing outside will only perceive as much light as is not intercepted
by all the curtains. The central light becomes dimmer and dimmer as
curtain after curtain is placed before the observer; and as curtain
after curtain is removed the light becomes brighter and brighter until
it reaches its natural brilliancy. Similarly, universal mind or Cosmic
ideation becomes more and more limited and modified by the various
Upadhis of which a human being is composed; and when the action or
influence of these various Upadhis is successively controlled, the mind
of the individual human being is placed en rapport with the universal
mind and his ideation is lost in Cosmic ideation.
As I have already said, these Upadhis are strictly speaking the
conditions of the gradual development or evolution of Bahipragna--or
consciousness in the present plane of our existence--from the original
and eternal Chinmatra, which is the seventh principle in man, and the
Parabrahmam of the Adwaitees.
This then is the purport of the Adwaitee philosophy on the subject under
consideration, and it is, in my humble opinion, in harmony with the
Arhat doctrine relating to the same subject. The latter doctrine
postulates the existence of Cosmic matter in an undifferentiated
condition throughout the infinite expanse of space. Space and time are
but its aspects, and Purush, the seventh principle of the universe, has
its latent life in this ocean of Cosmic matter. The doctrine in
question explains Cosmogony from an objective point of view.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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