Brahman, which is pure intelligence and opposed to all difference,
constitutes the only reality; and everything else, i.e. the plurality of
manifold knowing subjects, objects of knowledge, and acts of knowledge
depending on those two, is only imagined on (or 'in') that Brahman, and
is essentially false.
'In the beginning, my dear, there was that only which is, one only
without a second' (Ch. Up. VI, 2, 1); 'The higher knowledge is that by
which the Indestructible is apprehended' (Mu. Up. I, 1, 5); 'That which
cannot be seen nor seized, which has no eyes nor ears, no hands nor feet,
the permanent, the all-pervading, the most subtle, the imperishable
which the wise regard as the source of all beings' (Mu. Up. I, 1, 6);
'The True, knowledge, the Infinite is Brahman' (Taitt. Up. II, 1); 'He
who is without parts, without actions, tranquil, without fault, without
taint' (Svet. Up. VI, 19); 'By whom it is not thought, by him it is
thought; he by whom it is thought knows it not. It is not known by those
who know it, known by those who do not know it' (Ke. Up. II, 3); 'Thou
mayest not see the seer of sight; thou mayest not think the thinker of
thought' (Bri. Up. III, 4, 2); 'Bliss is Brahman' (Taitt. Up. III, 6, 1);
'All this is that Self' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 7); 'There is here no diversity
whatever' (Bri. Up. IV, 4, 19); 'From death to death goes he who sees
any difference here' (Ka. Up. II, 4, 10); 'For where there is duality as
it were, there one sees the other'; 'but where the Self has become all
of him, by what means, and whom, should he see? by what means, and whom,
should he know?' (Bri. Up. IV, 5, 15); 'the effect is a name merely
which has its origin in speech; the truth is that (the thing made of
clay) is clay merely' (Ch. Up. VI, 1, 4); 'for if he makes but the
smallest distinction in it there is fear for him' (Taitt. Up. II, 7);--
the two following Vedânta-sûtras: III, 2, 11; III, 2, 3--the following
passages from the Vishnu-purâna: 'In which all difference vanishes,
which is pure Being, which is not the object of words, which is known by
the Self only--that knowledge is called Brahman' (VI, 7, 53); 'Him whose
essential nature is knowledge, who is stainless in reality'; 'Him who,
owing to erroneous view, abides in the form of things' (I, 2, 6); 'the
Reality thou art alone, there is no other, O Lord of the world!--
whatever matter is seen belongs to thee whose being is knowledge; but
owing to their erroneous opinion the non-devout look on it as the form
of the world. This whole world has knowledge for its essential nature,
but the Unwise viewing it as being of the nature of material things are
driven round on the ocean of delusion. Those however who possess true
knowledge and pure minds see this whole world as having knowledge for
its Self, as thy form, O highest Lord!' (Vi. Pu. I, 4, 38 ff.).--'Of
that Self, although it exists in one's own and in other bodies, the
knowledge is of one kind, and that is Reality; those who maintain
duality hold a false view' (II, 14, 31); 'If there is some other one,
different from me, then it can be said, "I am this and that one is
another"' (II, 13, 86); 'As owing to the difference of the holes of the
flute the air equally passing through them all is called by the names of
the different notes of the musical scale; so it is with the universal
Self' (II, 14, 32); 'He is I; he is thou; he is all: this Universe is
his form. Abandon the error of difference. The king being thus
instructed, abandoned the view of difference, having gained an intuition
of Reality' (II, 16, 24). 'When that view which gives rise to difference
is absolutely destroyed, who then will make the untrue distinction
between the individual Self and Brahman?' (VI, 7, 94).--The following
passages from the Bhagavad-Gîtâ: 'I am the Self dwelling within all
beings' (X, 20); 'Know me to be the soul within all bodies' (XIII, 2);
'Being there is none, movable or immovable, which is without me' (X, 39).--
All these and other texts, the purport of which clearly is instruction
as to the essential nature of things, declare that Brahman only, i.e.
non-differenced pure intelligence is real, while everything else is
false.
The appearance of plurality is due to avidyâ.
'Falsehood' (mithyâtva) belongs to what admits of being terminated by
the cognition of the real thing--such cognition being preceded by
conscious activity (not by mere absence of consciousness or knowledge).
The snake, e.g. which has for its substrate a rope or the like is false;
for it is due to an imperfection (dosha) that the snake is imagined in
(or 'on') the rope. In the same way this entire world, with its
distinctions of gods, men, animals, inanimate matter, and so on, is,
owing to an imperfection, wrongly imagined in the highest Brahman whose
substance is mere intelligence, and therefore is false in so far as it
may be sublated by the cognition of the nature of the real Brahman. What
constitutes that imperfection is beginningless Nescience (avidyâ), which,
hiding the truth of things, gives rise to manifold illusions, and cannot
be defined either as something that is or as something that is not.--'By
the Untrue they are hidden; of them which are true the Untrue is the
covering' (Ch, Up. VIII, 3, 1); 'Know Mâya to be Prakriti, and the great
Lord him who is associated with Mâya' (Svet. Up. IV, 10); 'Indra appears
manifold through the Mâyâs' (Bri. Up. II, 5, 19); 'My Mâya is hard to
overcome' (Bha. Gî. VII, 14); 'When the soul slumbering in beginningless
Mâyâ awakes' (Gau. Kâ. I, 16).--These and similar texts teach that it is
through beginningless Mâyâ that to Brahman which truly is pure
non-differenced intelligence its own nature hides itself, and that it
sees diversity within itself. As has been said, 'Because the Holy One is
essentially of the nature of intelligence, the form of all, but not
material; therefore know that all particular things like rocks, oceans,
hills and so on, have proceeded from intelligence [FOOTNOTE 22:1] But
when, on the cessation of all work, everything is only pure intelligence
in its own proper form, without any imperfections; then no differences--
the fruit of the tree of wishes--any longer exist between things.
Therefore nothing whatever, at any place or any time, exists apart from
intelligence: intelligence, which is one only, is viewed as manifold by
those whose minds are distracted by the effects of their own works.
Intelligence pure, free from stain, free from grief, free from all
contact with desire and other affections, everlastingly one is the
highest Lord--Vâsudeva apart from whom nothing exists. I have thus
declared to you the lasting truth of things--that intelligence only is
true and everything else untrue. And that also which is the cause of
ordinary worldly existence has been declared to you' (Vi. Pu. II, 12,
39, 40, 43-45).
Avidyâ is put an end to by true Knowledge.
Other texts declare that this Nescience comes to an end through the
cognition of the essential unity of the Self with Brahman which is
nothing but non-differenced intelligence. 'He does not again go to death;'
'He sees this as one;' 'He who sees this does not see death' (Ch. Up.
VI, 27); 'When he finds freedom from fear and rest in that which is
invisible, incorporeal, undefined, unsupported, then he has obtained the
fearless' (Taitt. Up. II, 7); 'The fetter of the heart is broken, all
doubts are solved and all his works perish when he has been beheld who
is high and low' (Mu. Up. II, 2, 8); 'He knows Brahman, he becomes
Brahman only' (Mu. Up. III, 2, 9); 'Knowing him only a man passes over
death; there is no other path to go' (Svet. Up. III, 8). In these and
similar passages, the term 'death' denotes Nescience; analogously to the
use of the term in the following words of Sanatsujâta, 'Delusion I call
death; and freedom from delusion I call immortality' (Sanatsuj. II, 5).
The knowledge again of the essential unity and non-difference of Brahman--
which is ascertained from decisive texts such as 'The True, knowledge,
the Infinite is Brahman' (Taitt. Up. II, 1); 'Knowledge, bliss is
Brahman' (Bri. Up. III, 9, 28)--is confirmed by other passages, such as
'Now if a man meditates on another deity, thinking the deity is one and
he another, he does not know' (Bri. Up. I, 4, 10); 'Let men meditate
upon him as the Self (Bri. Up. I, 4, 7); 'Thou art that' (Ch. Up. VI, 8,
7); 'Am I thou, O holy deity? and art thou me, O holy deity?'; 'What I
am that is he; what he is that am I.'--This the Sûtrakâra himself will
declare 'But as the Self (scriptural texts) acknowledge and make us
apprehend (the Lord)' (Ve. Sû. IV, 1, 3). Thus the Vâkyakâra also, 'It
is the Self--thus one should apprehend (everything), for everything is
effected by that.' And to hold that by such cognition of the oneness of
Brahman essentially false bondage, together with its cause, comes to an
end, is only reasonable.