REAL OR ILLUSORY

Ardhena pravakshyami grandha kotibhih |

Brahma satyam jagan mithya brahmaiva na parah ||

---Sri Adisankaracharya

[In half of a sloka, I state that what has been stated in a crore scriptures, that is, Brahma alone is real and this Jagat (world) is mithya (illusory) and the Jiva (individual soul) is not – different from Brahma (Supreme Soul)  ]

I had said  ‘Emotions have their role in the gross existence though ‘Consciousness’ is above and apart !’; in the last para of  ‘Satsanga’.  Here, to be more clear,  gross existence is the physical ‘name and form’ of the being in this world which is like a ‘wave’ regarded as separate from ‘Consciousness’ the Ocean, in this material world by the earthlings.  The earnest seeker gradually understands the unravelling of this seeming duality as absolute illusion. He comes to know that what is rising as wave is nothing but the water of the ocean.  That is the water in form of wave and the water in the form of ocean is same. There is no difference at all. And he realises that the differences in shapes sizes-small wave, big wave- are all illusory and transitory; the content - water is one ! permanent nature being the ocean.

The ignorance exists only till such time when one tends to identify himself with the wave and the cyclic nature of rising and falling of wave. In that state of  ‘avidya maya’ ( being in illusion due to ignorance) his perspective becomes blurred.  In such conditions his pleasures and pains are experienced as ‘real’ and emanating from external sources.

‘There was an affluent sheik indulging always in worldly pleasures.  One day he sat in a solitary place and started enjoying huka with intoxicant. As the intoxication advanced in him he started to see visions of heaven with lot of angels dancing and entertaining him.  The 'heaven' was so real for him.  After a while, he rose up and left for his house.  Due to high intoxication he did not observe the puddle of water in the centre of the road to his house.  He slipped and fell down, broke his legs and waist.  
He lamented  within himself,  ‘Oh  my  God,  All of a sudden I fell from my ‘Heaven’.  My legs and waist are broken.  The agony is unbearable,  I am in  ‘Hell’ now.' 

Hence, it is understood that 'heaven' or 'hell' seem to be very much 'real',  for those who imagine and experience  like the sheik in this anecdote. But for the 'wise',  who experience the Almighty, all the  creation becomes, Illusory" .  Our proper identification in the ultimate analysis is that of  "Akhanda sacchidananda Samudram"  'The Ocean of Indivisible Reality, Awareness and Bliss!

                        Real Or IIllusory

 Om Shanti!