Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s8.1

v2.c26.s8.1

Gauḍapāda raises the question of the relation between the supreme principle Ātman and the phenomenal world. If we are earnest students of truth (paramārthacintakāḥ) and not mere speculators about creation (sṛṣṭicintakāḥ), we shall see that there is no such thing as creation at all. The real cannot be subject to change. If it be, then "the immortal would become mortal."³ "In no way is it possible that a thing can be changed into something quite the opposite."⁴ All becoming is unreal, valid only in the empirical world. In reality, there is nothing like distinction (nāsti bhedaḥ kathaṃcana).⁵ The Ātman, which is the one unconditioned reality, is cognisant of nothing beside itself. As Śaṃkara says: "Objects are cognised by a subject in action, not by one in simple subsistence." How this adhyāsa, or confusion of self with not-self, arises, how the one appears as manifold, since the indivisible Ātman cannot be really divided, is unaccountable, though the fact of the confusion cannot be gainsaid, and sometimes it is argued that it is necessary to seek for an explanation of the world even though it is not real.⁶ Gauḍapāda considers the different alternatives suggested to account for creation. "Some regard it as the manifestation of God (vibhūti), while others regard it as of the nature of dream or illusion (svapnamāyā); others maintain that it is the will of God, while those who believe in time declare that everything proceeds from time (kāla). Some say that creation is for the sake of enjoyment (bhoga), while others hold that it is for sport (krīḍā).” Gauḍapāda rejects all these views and declares that “it is the inherent nature of the shining one (devasyaiṣa svabhāvo yam). What desire can he have who has attained all?”¹ Rejecting, therefore, the view that the world is comparable to a dream or an illusion, Gauḍapāda contends that it is the manifestation of the very nature of God, the expression of his power. A realistic conception of the world also comes out in other passages. “The Ātman imagines himself by himself through the power of his māyā (svamāyayā). He alone cognises the objects so sent forth. This is the last word of the Vedānta on the subject.”² Here Gauḍapāda uses the word “māyā” in the sense of wondrous power; it becomes the svabhāva, or the nature of the Ātman, “inseparable from the ever-luminous who is hidden by it.”³ Māyā is also said to be the beginningless cosmic principle which hides reality from the vision of man.⁴ The absolute, together with this principle of māyā or svabhāva, which is the unmanifested (avyākṛtam), is the Īśvara, “who sends forth all the centres of consciousness.”⁵