Gita Rahasya -Tilak
CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
Therefore, the Non-Dualist Vedanta has laid down the proposition that the ultimate, that is to say, the non-relative and eternal form of the Parabrahman is not only qualityless but indescribable, and that, man sees a qualityful appearance, in this qualityless form, by reason of his organs. But, here again a question arises as to how the organs have acquired the power of changing the Qualityless into the Qualityful. The reply of the Non-Dualistic Vedanta to this is : as human knowledge stops at this stage, one has either to say that this must be called the ignorance of the organs, and that their seeing the appearance of the qualityful universe in the qualityless Parabrahman is due to that ignorance ; or, one has to oontent oneself with drawing the definite inference that the visible universe (Prakrti) is only a ' divine illusion ' of the qualityless Paramesvara, since the organs themselves are part of the creation of the Para- mesvara [1]. My readers will understand from this the> import of the statements in the Gita [2] that- though the a-prabuddha, that is, those who see merely by the physical organs, see the Paramesvara to be perceptible and qualityful, yet, His real and excellent form is qualityless and that Realising that form by spiritual vision is the climax of Knowledge. But though, in this way, one arrives at the conclusion that the Paramesvara is fundamentally qualityless,. and that the human organs see in Him the variegated appearance of the qualityful universe, yet, it becomes necessary to precisely explain in what meaning the word ‘qualityless’ has to be taken in this proposition.
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