Gita Rahasya -Tilak 221

Karma Yoga Sastra -Tilak

CHAPTER IX THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF I shall, therefore, disregard the subtle difference made in later Vedantic treatises between avidya and maya in relation to the Jiva and the Isvara, merely for purposes of facility of exposition, and take the words maya, avidya and ajnana as synonymous, and shortly and scientifically deal with the question as to what is ordinarily the elementary form of this Maya with its three constituents or of avidya, ajnana, or molia, and also how the doctrines of the Gita or of the Upanisads can be explained with reference to that form. Although the words nirguna and saguva are apparently insignificant, yet, when one considers all the various things which they include, the entire Cosmos verily stands in front of one's eyes. These two small words embrace such numerous and ponderous questions as : how has the unbroken entity of that enternal Parabrahman, which is the Root of the Cosmos, been broken up by its acquiring the numerous activities or qualities which are perceptible to human organs, though it was originally ONE, inactive, and apathetic ?; or, how is that, which was fundamentally homogeneous, now seen to be trans- formed into distinct, heterogeneous, and perceptible objects?; how has that Parabrahman, which is nirvikara (immutable), and which does not possess the various qualities of sweetness, pungency, bitterness, solidity, liquidity, heat or cold, given rise to different kinds of tastes, or to more or less of solidity or liquidity, or to numerous couples of opposite qualities, such as, heat and cold, happiness and pain, light and darkness, death and immortality ?; how has that Parabrahman, which is peaceful and undisturbed, given rise to numerous kinds of voices or sounds ?; how has that Parabrahman, which does not know the difference of inside or outside, or distant or near, acquired the qualities of being here or further away, near or distant, or towards the East or towards the West, which are qualities of directions or of place 1 ; how has that Parabrahman, which is immutable, unaffected by Time, permanent and immortal been changed into objects, which perish in a longer or shorter space of time ? ; or how has that Parabrahman, which is not affected by the law of causes and products, come before us in the form of a cause and a product, in the shape of earth and the earthenware pot ? Or, to expreBB the same thing in short, we "have now to consider how that which was ONE, acquired diversity; how that which was non-dual, acquired duality; how that which was untouched by opposite doubles (dvamdva), "became affected by these opposite doubles; or,, how that which was unattached (asamga), acquired attachment (samga). Samkhya philosophy has got over this difficulty by imagining a duality from the very beginning, and by saying that qualityful Prakrti with its three constituents, is eternal and independent, in the same way as the qualityless and eternal Purusa (Spirit). But, not only is the natural tendency of the human mind, to find out the fundamental Root of the world, not satisfied by this duality, but it also does not bear the test of logic.