rAjA janaka learned from aSTAvakra that the true nature of his Self was the paramEs’vara.
Janaka said,
- I am the stainless, peaceful knower, beyond prakRti. All this time, I was decieved by mOha (illusion/fascination).
- I illuminate the universe as I illuminate this single body. Either the whole universe is mine or nothing at all is!
- Now, having renounced the universe with this body, through some skill, the supreme Self (paramAtma) is seen by me.
- As waves, foam and bubbles are not different from water, this universe that emanates from the Self is not different from it.
- On analysis, cloth is thread alone and similarly considered the universe is the Self only.
- As the sugar prepared from sugarcane juice is pervaded by it, thus this universe created in me is pervaded by me.
- The world is apparent from the ignorance of the Self and is not apparent from the knowledge of the Self. From ignorance, the rope appears like a snake, from knowing that it’s a rope, the snake disappears.
- My real form is that of light, I am not other than light. Thus when the universe radiates light, it is I who shine.
- As silver appears in the mother-of-pearl, as a snake appears in a rope and as sun-beams appear in water, this विकल्पित manifold, universe appears in me.
Janaka is pointing out that universe as we perceive it is an error in perception. When we see a snake in a rope on the ground, we are super-imposing wrong knowledge on the data. In the case of reflected sun-beams, we know the sun is not “in the water” as it appears but it is in the sky and it is a mere reflection.
The important point here is that all we have in our head is interpretations of the data stream that our senses dump continuously in our brain. These interpretations depend on what we have learned so far through teaching, thinking and observation.
Now, you may accept this teaching of aSTAvakra and re-look at the universe as Janaka is doing. Everything that is out-there according to you is really your interpretation of a sensory stream., and is actually in your head.
- That is not how it really looks. If you were looking at blips on a radar in a submarine, you know that the real submarine does not look like a blip.
- If you are looking at SRK in a movie, you have no idea what perfume he might be wearing. There is a fragrance, one expects, but the camera did not capture it.
- There might be energies/smells/etc beyond our five senses, that we cannot detect in this submarine called the human body that we are sitting in, with our sensory instruments like radars and periscopes etc. eg tigers can only see black and white and dogs can hear and smell way more than we can.
- The entire universe that we have re-constructed, based on our senses (limited in number and range) is a limited model in our own heads. Though it does look pretty good! There is a pretty tree with yellow flowers outside my window.
- This universe that has emanated from me attains its ‘laya’ (rythym, dissolution) in me, as a pot in clay, a bracelet in gold and a wave in water.
- Wonderful I! Salutations (namah) to me! There is no destruction to me. I stand even when the world is destroyed from brahma to the clump of grass!
- Wonderful I! Salutations (namah) to me! I alone, though having a body, having neither gone nor come anywhere, I pervade the universe!
- Wonderful I! Salutations (namah) to me! There is no dakSa (skilled one) like myself. I bear this universe without touching it with my body!
- Wonderful I! Salutations (namah) to me! I who have nothing at all, Or who has everything within the reach of mind and speech!
