Re: A purpose of an illusion
namaste mayakruha and others.
The term samsAra means a course, passage, passing through a succession of states in a cycle. Bhagavan Das defines the term as the World Process in his book The Science of Peace in which traces the why and how of samsAra and the roles of the scenary and actors involved in the process and their relationship with Brahman. You can read the book here in HDF starting from this thread:
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/showthread.php?t=2598
http://www.hindudharmaforums.com/for...=13&order=desc
Essentially, Vedas and UpaniShads describe samsAra as the result of Brahman's desire to know him better. Why does a novelist write his/her masterpiece or a film director bring out an alltime hit film? Their primary aim is express their personality in their product. Thus, all the characters in a novel are the expressions of the self of its author, who also creates their illusory world.
The difference between the characters in a novel and us is that they cannot know their author, whereas we have that legacy. With proper inquiry, the wise say, that we would find that the Self or Atman, which is one and the same for all, is the author of the World Process. Once we start to know even intellectually that we are not what we are and that what we are, are only the roles we are assigned to play in this birth, such knowledge would make our lives better and more meaningful, especially because of the peace and happiness that such attitude brings in.
Bhagavan Das has a simple but profound theory for the World Process. He says it is encoded in the single letter/syllable AUM. In that syllable, which is better known as praNava mantra, A stands for Atman--Self, U for anAtman--Not Self and M for negation of the Not Self by the Self. This negation is a continuous and cyclic process, which in turn generates all the space, time and jIvas--individual souls in the world and make them undergo births and deaths in a karmic reincartion cycle. The solution to come out of the cycle lies in the true knowledge of the Self, which is obtained by the intense inquiry of neti, neti--I am not this body, mind, fame, home, world and so on--and if I am NOT all of these, when who am I?
रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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