Question 201-03: How is it this universe appears as real?

Bhaktha: Maya means?
Swami: The Ajnanasakthi of the above said Parabrahmam …

Bhaktha: Ajnanasakthi means?
Swami: I told you, did I not? The incapacity to understand Brahmam… though you are fundamentally Brahmam. That is Ajnana.

Bhaktha: Well, how does that Ajnana produce all this Jagath?
Swami: The Ajnanasakthi does not allow you to see the rope; instead it imposes the snake upon it; it makes you see the Jagath, where there is only Brahmam.

Bhaktha: Swami, when there is only the Adwaitha non-dual one, how did the creation of all these worlds happen?
Swami: You have come back again to where we started from! Even if I tell you now, it is very hard to grasp. Still, since you have asked, I shall tell you. Listen. The Ajnanasakthi exists in the latent form in the rope itself. That is to say, it is latent, unmanifested in the Brahmam. This is also called Avidya. It has as its base, Brahmam, which is Chith and Ananda. Of the two powers that Maya has, the Aavarana and the Vikshepa, the Aavarana veils the Brahmam and the Vikshepa makes it manifest as Manas. The Manas creates all this panorama of name and form through the exuberance of Vasanas.

Bhaktha: Wonderful, Swami. How wonderful is this Prakriti! What is the distinction between the waking stage and the dream stage?
Swami: Both are of the nature of illusion; in both, we have the Vasanas operating. The Jagath is the stable illusion; the dream is the unstable illusion. This is the distinction, there is no other.

Bhaktha: Swami, how can it be said that this Jagath is unreal, when it is concrete and capable of being experienced in a variety of ways?
Swami: It is a delusion that hides the reality from the understanding, the Jagath is as much a superimposition on Brahmam, as a series of pictures on the wall.

Bhaktha: Avidya is said to be Anaadi, isn’t it? Why then is it blamed so much?
Swami: The beginningless Avidya is ended when Vidya dawns. This is only logical. Darkness is destroyed by light. Every object has five parts: Origin, nature, function, period, result. But in the case of the Paramatma these cannot be enunciated, though everything that has evolved as if from Him, has them. Maya alone has no explicable origin. It is its own proof. It is there in Brahmam, with Brahmam: It is An-adi. No cause can be given to explain how it manifested itself, so luxuriously. As a bubble rises through force of its own nature, up from the water, a force which takes the form of Nama rupa emerges from the limitless, the full, the Paramatma. That is all. It is only the ignorant who will speak ill of Avidya: really there is no well or ill.

Bhaktha: How can it be said the Maya has no origin or cause? Just as the potter’s handiwork is the cause for the clay to take the form of the pot, the Sankalpa of Iswara is essential for the force latent in Brahmam to become patent.
Swami: In the final dissolution, or Mahapralaya, Iswara too will become nonexistent. Brahmam alone will exist, isn’t it? Then, how can the Sankalpa of Iswara be the cause? It cannot be. While considering this subject, you should not take Brahma, Vishnu and Iswara as three separate entities. These three are forms shaped by the three Gunas. All three are one Paramatma. But, since it is difficult to understand the working of the world, it is explained and grasped as three; three forms engaged in three types of actions, bearing three names. At the time of creation, dissolution is absent. Both can coexist only beyond time. Man who exists in time, action and cause can never hope to grasp it. When you transcend the three Gunas, you too can attain that, but, not till then. So, without spending time in such un-understandable problems, engage yourself in the things you urgently need, traversing the path, which will lead you to the goal.

Sandeha Nivarini Dialogue XVII