Vikshepa vs avarana

[putran M]

Namaskaram,

Are vikshepa (projecting) and avarana (hiding) thought of as two distinct powers of maya, having separate but complementary roles?

Or is vikshepa the mirror image (or reducible to) avarana?

I am thinking of the following analogies. 

1. The sky projects clouds of various shapes. We associate individuality and reality to the clouds when there is only the Sky that appears as if many through the projection of clouds. 

Here the Sky makes appear ("imagines") the clouds and thereby a dualistic vision of the Sky.

Here is the alternate analogy.

2. The clouds are not the positive entity; what is known is the Sky sans the avarana/ajnana (represented here by clouds). We see the patches of blue sky and imagine a duality of shapes (like pot spaces). 

There never was anything but Brahman; but for the play of ajnana/avarana producing contextual consciousness, that projects a vivarta appearance of world. However from the vyavaharika standpoint of ajnana, it will appear that Brahman is projecting as the world (or is obstructing Awareness resulting in appearance of Ishvara-jiva-jagat). (That is, it will appear as if the Sky is projecting the patches not hidden by the cloud of ajnana.)

In this case, vikshepa-shakti of Maya is more about the way it hides/obstructs the Self (making appear dualistic identification by default), than about how it projects appearance of duality.

thollmelukaalkizhu

[putran M]

Namaskaram,

Last night I received some questions from a cousin on death, why life, etc. I wrote an initial part response using the cloud analogy.

Quote

why? What really is the point? Why creation juat to die later?

Why can't it all remain still always?

Everything is maya isn't it? 

[name’s ] body is no more.

Om Shanthi. Sadgati.

Unquote

Response:

We can try to answer these questions but first we must get some clarity about the standpoint from which we will answer them. Consider this analogy.

There is a partially cloudy sky. You see patches of blue in the midst of the clouds. Now, you see a small hole; it becomes bigger; takes on various shapes and interacts with others nearby. Eventually the clouds cover the hole; the patch of sky is gone.

The Jnani knows it is the non-dual sky that appears as if various patches or holes due to the clouds; in every patch he knows the same Sky. The sky never really changed; never became bigger or smaller; came into being or became non-being. All these notions are apparent projections of the obstructing clouds, and the jnani is unperturbed by the appearances. 

But they matter much to the ajnani, for whom there are a multitude of interacting patches of skies, of various shapes, getting born now and dying later, each competing with the other. It is crazy, volatile, confusing. The ajnani superimposes the limitations projected by the clouds onto the sky and imagines the sky to suffer the changes, birth, death, duality etc.

Tranlating from this analogy, here is the message: We have to be very clear that the atma that we are identifying in any body-mind is non-different from Brahman, the non-dual substratum Consciousness that appears due to Maya, shakti, as if individual, plural. It does not make sense to ask the questions you ask from the standpoint of this knowledge: don't cry for whatever be the shape of the patches, the sky is just the same and already at peace. Those questions pertain to the standpoint of ignorance where the Self is being identified in terms of the limitations/prakriti projected by or manifest in maya, shakti, Ishvara.

Note that we are not negating this standpoint in absolute terms. It is a fact of experience that you the Self find yourself identified with a body-mind and see others likewise in a manifest existence of Ishvara-jiva-jagat. In the dream, there is a reality pertaining to the dream.

But the solution to our problem of ignorance is ultimately the knowledge of our true Self, the Self of All: that atman = Brahman. So, the quest of happiness in the dream does not end in the dream; rather it is the end of the dream when the body identified jiva wakes up to the Self that alone IS. Does not mean the sky has changed or that the clouds all vanish; but you know the non-dual immutable ever full ever true ever blissful Reality that is at the heart of all. 

Once we understand this much, we can then approach these questions from within the standpoint of ignorance where they belong. The answers will be tied to the solution for how the jiva has to find liberation from Ignorance.

Can get into that later.

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thollmelukaalkizhu