"Verses: 103 to 110"

 

Ego discussed (verses 103-105):

 

103. The inner organ has its seat of expression in the sense-organs such as the eye etc. Identifying with them as ―I‖, it exists, by the reflection of the Self (Atman) in it.

 

104. Know that it is the ego which, identifying with the body, becomes the doer or the experiencer, and in conjuction with the Gunas* such as sattva etc, this ego assumes the three different states (of waking, dreaming, and deep sleep).

 

105. When the sense-objects are favorable, the situation is happy. When they are unfavorable, it is miserable. Happiness and misery are, therefore, the characteristics of the ego and do not belong to the the Self (Atman), which is ever-blissful.

 

Infinite love - the Self (verses 106-107):

 

106. Sense-objects are pleasurable only because of the Self which manifests through them, and not independently, for the Self is, by its very nature, the most beloved* of all. The Self, therefore, is ever-blissful and can never suffer any grief or misery.

 

*In one of the most meaningful teachings ever proclaimed, rishi Yajnavalkya tells his wife, Maitreyi: ―Na va are sarvasya kamya sarvam priyam bhavati, atmanastu kamaya sarvam priyam bhavati—Nothing is loved for its own sake; it is for the sake of the Self that everyting is loved." (Brh.U. 2.4.5)

107. Scriptues , direct experience, tradition and inference clearly attest that in deep-sleep, we experience the Bliss of the Self (Atman) independent of sense-objects.

 

Maya pointed out (verses 108-110):

 

108. Nescience (Avidya) or Maya*, also called the ―Unmanifest,‖ is the power of the Lord. It is without beginning; it comprises the three gunas and is superior to their effects (as their cause). It is to be inferred only by one who has a clear intellect, from the effects it produces. It is this Maya which projects the entire universe.

 

*Maya literally means that which is not (Skt., ma=not; ya=that: ―Ya ma samaya‖ – that which is not there, that is Maya). One of the key questions in Vedanta is: If Brahman is One only, without a second, how do we experience the manifold world? Vedanta‘s short answer is that Avidya-led Maya "covers" the One and "projects" the Many. These are spoken of as the veiling power (avarnasakti) and the projecting power (vikshepasakti) of the Cosmic Grand illusion called Maya. Actually, Maya is Brahman's dream. In Indian philosophy, our phenomenal existence is spoken of as dream-like or illusory—like the horns of a rabbit—as manomaya, i.e., of the nature of mind. To explain the appearance of the maninfold world, the concept of ―maya” is invoked. Maya, thus, is the cosmic illusion—the mother of duality—on account of which one appears as many and the real appears as unreal.

 

109. It (Maya), is neither existent nor non-existent, nor both; neither same nor different nor both; neither made up of parts nor partless nor both. Most wonderful it is and beyond description in words.

 

110. By realization of the pure, non-dual Brahman, Maya can be destroyed, just as the illusion of the snake is removed by the discriminative knowledge of the rope. Its qualities (gunas) are rajas, tamas, and sattva, distinguished by their respective functions.