Universal Superimposition – Light on the
Analogy of a Painted Picture
The process of the
manifestation of the universe is fourfold, as there is a fourfold process in
the painting of a picture. There is, first, a piece of cloth, pure in its
original state. It is then coated with starch, to stiffen it into a canvas
suitable for painting. The artist draws on the canvas an outline of the picture
that is in his mind. Finally, the outline is filled with the necessary color,
giving it the appearance of the contemplated picture.
The universe is a vast picture
painted, as it were, on the basis of Brahman. Pure Consciousness, which is the
nature of Brahman, is the substratum of all things, and this may be compared to
the pure cloth necessary as the background for the painting. The condition in
which the projection of the universe is latently conceived and held in a
seed-form, unmanifest and invisible, is the state of Isvara, where the universe
is in sleep. There is a rousing from this sleep into a dreaming condition of
creation in Hiranyagarbha, where faint outlines of the picture of the universe
are visible, though a clear perception of it is impossible there. The colourful
presentation of creation is brought into high relief in the state of Virat,
where is a waking of all things into their own individualities, and where each
regards oneself as a distinct entity.
All manifested beings, right
from the Creator to a blade of grass, animate and inanimate, exist as a
graduated series of manifestations, all painted on the substratum of Brahman.
Higher consciousness, lower consciousness and unconsciousness are differences
introduced in the various items constituting the painted picture of the Cosmos,
from the point of view of the degree in which Brahman-Consciousness is
manifested in each of them. The difference in the expression of consciousness
in different individuals does not mean that the individuals are really
possessed of any intelligence of their own, for one and the same Consciousness
is manifest in all these, in various ways, in accordance with the subtlety of
the medium of expression. The intellect or the Buddhi, being a subtler medium,
reflects a greater amount of consciousness than the lower kingdom, in which
such a medium is absent.
Just as we differentiate,
artificially, the painted dresses and the painted human beings from the real
cloth on which the picture is painted, we do in this world make a false
distinction between the imaginary, reflected intelligence called Chidabhasa,
and the real Intelligence, which is Brahman. As these reflections or Chidabhasa
are different owing to the difference in the degree of intelligence manifest in
them, Jivas are manifold in number, and there are countless ways of drawing a
distinction between Jiva and Brahman. As the colour of the painted clothes is
unwisely superimposed on the cloth-background by the observers, the
individualities and the variegated world-forms are wrongly felt to be in the
Brahman.
The feeling that Samsara is
real, that it is intertwined with the Self, really, is the bondage of the Jiva,
and this is called Avidya. The firm conviction that bondage does not belong to
the Atman, that it is a phase of Jivahood or Chidabhasa, is true knowledge, and
this is acquired by deep reflection. Hence one should constantly engage oneself
in a thorough investigation of the nature of Isvara, Jagat, and Jiva (God,
World and Soul). When there dawns the awareness that the world and Jiva are
correlatives and have no independent reality or value of their own, they cancel
each other, and there rises the higher knowledge of the Paramatman or the
Supreme Self.
Mere non-perception of the
world should not be mistaken for the liberation of the Jiva. Else, there would
be liberation in sleep, swoon, death and cosmic dissolution, where the world is
not objectively experienced. Liberation is positive knowledge of the unreality
of multiplicity, and the reality of the universal Unity. In the state of the
true Knowledge the outward perception of the world need not necessarily be
negatived. The appearance of the world may be there, but the feeling of its
reality is not there. Such a state is called liberation-while-living
(Jivanmukti).
Continue to read:
Universal Superimposition
- The Philosophy
of the Panchadasi by Swami Krishnananda
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