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CHAPTER IX
THE PHILOSOPHY OF THE ABSOLUTE SELF
Therefore, although the Blessed Lord has said in the Glta. that
"'Prakrti is nothing but My Maya" [1], the Gita
itself also says that this Prakrti, which has become imbued
with or inhabited by the Paramesvara (Gi. 9. 10), is further
developed according to the rule "guna gunesu vartante" [2]. From this it will be clear, that when once the
appearance of Maya has taken place in the fundamentally
qualityless Brahman according to Vivarta-vada, the principle
of gunotkarsa (Development of Constituents) has been accepted
even by the Gita for explaining this Mayic appearance, that is,
this further development of Prakrti. It is not that because
you say that the entire visible world is a Mayic appearance,
therefore, there cannot be some such rule like gunotkarsa
which controls the changes in form which take place in this
Appearance. Vedantists do not wish to deny that the further
development of this Mayic appearance is bound by rules. All
that they say is that these rules are also Mayic, like the funda-
mental Prakrti, and that the Paramesvara is the Over-Lord of
all these Mayic rules, and is beyond them, and that it is by
His power that some sort of permanence or regularity has
come into these rules. It is not possible for the qualityful,
that is, perishable Prakrti, which is in the form of an
Appearance, to lay down rules which are not circumscribed by
Time. From the foregoing discussion, my readers will understand
the nature and the mutual relationship between the Jiva
(personal self) and the Paramesvara (the Absolute Isvara), or
according to Vedantic terminology, between Maya (that is,
the universe which has been brought into existence by Maya),
the Atman, and the Parabrahman. From the point of view
of the philosophy of the Highest Self, all the things in the
universe are divided into two classes, namely, 'Names and
Forms, and the Eternal Element ' ( nitya-tattva ) clothed in
those Names and Forms. Out of these, ' Names and Forms '
are known as the qualityful Maya or Prakrti. But when you
eliminate the Names and Forms, the Eternal Element (nitya-
dravya) which remains, must be qualityless; because, no
quality can exist without the support of a Name and Form.
This eternal and imperceptible Element is the Parabrahman ;
and- the weak organs of human beings see the qualityful
Maya as a growth out of this qualityless Parabrahman.
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