Life and Death: Illusion And Reality

By ALOK CHOPRA

Non-dualism is the highest Vedantic truth. Only Brahman exists. The pluralistic world as we experience it is merely a figment of the imagination. An illusion.

At the highest level Vedanta does not encourage any discussion on the nature of the world and its cause. That would merely be emphasising the reality of something which does not exist. It focuses on the direct experience of Reality.

The world is superimposed upon Brahman as the snake is seen in place of a rope. The rope is real. Any talk about the snake is futile as it is non-existent. To ultimately recognise Brahman as the ever-existing Reality is liberation or Moksha. Brahman is indicated as being omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent. It is eternal, ever blissful and pure consciousness. It is the very essence of everything. It pervades the entire creation as water pervades all the waves and the ocean. Just as waves are nothing but water so also the world is nothing but Brahman. The individual caught in the names and forms experiences a heterogeneous phenomenon instead of the one homogeneous Reality.

The individual itself is part of the illusion, the creation of its own imagination. The perception, emotions and thoughts that one experiences keep us from the recognition of our own Real nature as being one with Brahman. As long as one cherishes and encourages these one will continue to project this illusion.

Each one of us is bound to our superimposed personality of the body, mind and intellect. Attached to these we go through the joys and sorrows in the world. These ever-changing material layers are not our real nature. They keep under- going change. In and through these changes we continue to maintain a sense of I-ness. I was a child, I am young and I will be old. In all these stages 'I' continues to exist which experiences all the changes. Vedanta urges us to understand the real 'I' - the unchanging Self. It wants us to rise above the involvement with our body, mind and intellect and recognise the real 'I'.

The 'I' remains unaffected by the world. The world can affect only the body, mind and intellect, not our real Self. One who has recognised this truth becomes a perfect witness to all the happenings of the world. One lives in the perfect bliss of one's own self even while functioning in this world. The changes of the world can never affect the serenity of the inner being.

See the reflection of the moon in a pail of water. When the water is perfectly still, the reflection is sharp and clear. When the surface of the water is disturbed, the reflection of the moon is also disturbed. But not so the real moon. It remains as clear and bright in the sky above. One who identifies merely with the moon in the bucket feels the moon to be disturbed. But one who is aware of the moon as separate from the reflection knows it to be ever independent of all disturbances in the water. So also the unconditioned consciousness appears as conditioned when reflected in the equipment. When our identification is with the equipment we seem to go through the fluctuations as undergone by them. When our attention is on the real Self, we remain unaffected by what happens to them.

Through self-purification by practice of karma, bhakti and gnana yogas, followed by meditation, one recognises the pure nature within. Our essential self is the same as underlying the entire creation. All differences dissolve into that one Reality or Brahman, which is one without a second. The entire pluralistic creation is manifested from that one homogeneous Reality and dissolves into it upon our waking up to that Truth.

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See also: Life and Death, Life and Beyond, Death and Dying, Body Mind and Soul)