Maya - The Illusion Of The Soul

by Jayaram V
Maya is both an aspect and function of prakriti. The dynamic power of Siva is
called prakriti or shakti. In his aspect as suppressor (vamadeva), Siva uses
maya as his concealing power to suppress his own powers in the beings and
objects he creates. It is not uncommon to see the words maya and prakriti
being used interchangeably to denote shakti. To avoid confusion, in this
article we prefer to use maya as an aspect and function of prakriti rather
than prakriti itself and also use the word prakriti and shakti synonymously or
interchangeably. Maya in Saivism is considered as one of the three
impurities that bind the jivas to the mortal worlds through delusion. The
other two impurities are anava (egoism) and karma (willful actions).
Monistic schools and dualistic schools of Saivism differ in their interpretation
of the relationship between Siva and Shakti and whether they are separable
or inseparable. While both sides accept Siva as the efficient cause of
creation, they differ on the point of which of the two actually is the material
cause of the universe. Monistic schools consider Siva as the primary cause of
everything. Dualistic schools argue that Siva, jivas and shakti coexist
eternally and that they can neither be created nor destroyed. In their
highest aspect they may be similar but in the lower planes of creation their
distinction becomes more pronounced. Whatever be the truth, maya is


employed to conceal in the jivas Siva consciousness and the super natural
powers of Siva.
Pure Beings and Pure Worlds
Maya is employed differently in different planes of creation. In the highest
plane of supreme consciousness, prakriti or shakti radiates the supreme
powers of Siva in their unlimited and uninhibited aspect. The five powers of
Siva manifest in these worlds to their optimum capacity. They are
1. pure consciousness (chit-shakti),
2. bliss (ananda-shakti),
3. will power (iccha-shakti),
4. pure knowledge (jnana-shakti) and
5. dynamic power (kriya-shakti).
Beings of these worlds reflect the five powers of Siva without any impurity
and are eternally one with him. These are the worlds of pure beings or the
highest gods who are unbound (adhikara-muktas). They are not subject to
the conflict of duality or the impurity of maya. They may be subject to a
subtle form of individuality (anava), but completely free from the other two
impurities of karma and maya.
Impure Beings and Impure Worlds
In the lower planes, shakti unveils its fivefold maya and veils the fivefold
powers of Siva. This veiling creates illusory distinction between Siva and the
beings and limits their awareness so that they do not know who they
actually are or what their powers are. So while pure beings possess
supernatural powers, impure beings are limited in their powers. While pure
beings can move without moving, know without the effort to know, manifest
things at will or live in a state of bliss, impure beings experience great
difficulty in accomplishing them or cannot accomplish them at all. Shadows
of their true selves, they are free beings in their inner worlds but bound in
their external world. The following table explains which powers or concealed
and what limitations arise from each concealment.
S.No Energy of Siva Veiled
or Concealed or
Hidden
The Veiling Aspect of
Maya at Work
Resulting Limitation
1 chit-shakti kaala (time) Limitations in the
experience of


absoluteness and unity
of eternality or infinity.
2 iccha-shakti niyati (space) Limitations in the
execution and
manifestation of will
3 jnana-shakti vidya (knowledge) Limitations in knowing
4 kriya-shakti kala (power) Limitations in
manifestation
5 ananda-shakti raga (passion) Limitations in the
experience of joy and
love and sense of
being.
The Grand Delusion5/14/2014suffer from the limitations of time
and space
Liberation the End of the Game
If the cyclical process of creation begins with the act of Siva and prakriti
manifesting themselves in phases from source to the subtle and then to the
gross, this cycle comes to an end only when they withdraw themselves from
the gross into the subtle and then finally into the source itself. Individual
souls have the freedom not to wait till it happens on the universal scale.
They have the freedom to rid themselves of their impurities and limitations
and rediscover their true nature. They can tear apart the veil of maya and
set themselves free.
This happens only when a jiva recognizes its true identity. Recognition
therefore (pratyabhijna) is the key to freedom. When the jiva becomes
aware of its true Siva nature, it rests in the consciousness of Siva and
becomes free. Intense aspiration, sincere and disciplined effort, commitment
to the path, transcending the ego, guidance of the guru and divine
intervention are some of the means to destroy the bonds and experience
oneness with Siva.
Abhinavagupta mentions three types of liberation. Paramuktas are the souls
who become absorbed in Parasiva (formless Siva) after liberation.
Aparamuktas are the souls who experience oneness with Siva and join his
world of pure beings with some of their individuality still intact. Jivanmuktas
are the souls who are liberated while still in their physical bodies. The
Gorakshnatha tradition believes that once union with Siva consciousness is


achieved in a state of samadhi, beings are never deluded again. They remain
absorbed in their highest consciousness even while performing mundane
tasks. They suffer no more from the impurities or duality. Whatever may the
path they choose, for Jivanmuktas there are no more births and rebirths.
Review
1. What is maya?
2. What is the relationship between maya and Prakriti?
3. Who are pure beings?
4. What is the main difference between pure and impure beings?
5. How does an embodied soul become liberated?

Maya is mother Nature herself, meaning measurer in Sanskrit
The delusory power inherent in creation by which one appears as many.
Maya is the veil that each man must lift in order to see behind it the creator, the Eternal.
In Short, "IT is an illusion that takes us away from God and Mukti or Nirvana". All these visible world and
its beauty is not eternal and it's the craft of Maya.
"It is a curtain between us and God and when the curtain is removed, there remains only Atman and
Parmatman."
"The most simple and eternal reality is God and his Maya stops us to know this."

Hinduism ~ What is the true definition of Maya...?
What is Maya, who creates it and why it is created. How it helps or how it stops in enlightenment.

The Concept of Maya
Vedanta declares that our real nature is divine: pure, perfect, eternally free. We
do not have to become Brahman, we are Brahman. Our true Self, the Atman, is
one with Brahman.
But if our real nature is divine, why then are we so appallingly unaware of it?


The answer to this question lies in the concept of maya, or ignorance. Maya is the
veil that covers our real nature and the real nature of the world around us. Maya
is fundamentally inscrutable: we dont know why it exists and we dont know when
it began. What we do know is that, like any form of ignorance, maya ceases to
exist at the dawn of knowledge, the knowledge of our own divine nature.
Brahman is the real truth of our existence: in Brahman we live, move, and have
our being. All this is indeed Brahman, the Upanishadsthe scriptures that form
Vedanta philosophydeclare. The changing world that we see around us can be
compared to the moving images on a movie screen: without the unchanging
screen in the background, there can be no movie. Similarly, it is the unchanging
Brahmanthe substratum of existencein the background of this changing world
that gives the world its reality.
Yet for us this reality is conditioned, like a warped mirror, by time, space, and
causalitythe law of cause and effect. Our vision of reality is further obscured by
wrong identification: we identify ourselves with the body, mind, and ego rather
than the Atman, the divine Self.
This original misperception creates more ignorance and pain in a domino effect:
identifying ourselves with the body and mind, we fear disease, old age and death;
identifying ourselves with the ego, we suffer from anger, hatred, and a hundred
other miseries. Yet none of this affects our real nature, the Atman.
Maya can be compared to clouds which cover the sun: the sun remains in the sky
but a dense cloud cover prevents us from seeing it. When the clouds disperse, we
become aware that the sun has been there all the time. Our cloudsmaya
appearing as egotism, selfishness, hatred, greed, lust, anger, ambitionare
pushed away when we meditate upon our real nature, when we engage in
unselfish action, and when we consistently act and think in ways that manifest our
true nature: that is, through truthfulness, purity, contentment, self -restraint, and
forbearance. This mental purification drives away the clouds of maya and allows
our divine nature to shine forth.
Shankara, the great philosopher-sage of seventh-century India, used the example
of the rope and the snake to illustrate the concept of maya. Walking down a
darkened road, a man sees a snake; his heart pounds, his pulse quickens. On
closer inspection the snake turns out to be a piece of coiled rope. Once the
delusion breaks, the snake vanishes forever.


Similarly, walking down the darkened road of ignorance, we see ourselves as
mortal creatures, and around us, the universe of name and form, the universe
conditioned by time, space, and causation. We become aware of our limitations,
bondage, and suffering. On closer inspection both the mortal creature as well as
the universe turn out to be Brahman. Once the delusion breaks, our mortality as
well as the universe disappear forever. We see Brahman existing everywhere and
in everything.
Time and Eternity
By Devadatta Kali Jaya
Devadatta Kali Jaya (David Nelson) has been closely associated with the Vedanta
Society since 1966. A regular lecturer at Vedanta Societies as well as a
contributor to Vedanta journals throughout the world, Devadatta Kali is the author
of In Praise of the Goddess: The Devimahatmya and Its Meaning and The Veiling
Brilliance: Meditations on Shakti.

What is time? The basics
What is time? It is something that plays a huge role in the way we experience our
everyday lives. In fact, without time, life as we know it would be impossible. Time
is something that is always with us, that appears to be close at handa palpable
reality. Sometimes we stress out over not having enough of it. We say we are
pressed for time or are racing against the clock to get something done.
Sometimes we stress out under unpleasant circumstances and think, If only the
clock would move faster! In those cases we say that time weighs heavy on our
hands, but is it possible to touch or to hold time? We speak of spending time and
saving time. Like money, time spent is time gone, but unlike money, time saved is
not tucked safely away for later use. No matter what we do, time moves on. But
can we say that we actually see time passing, as we would see a river flowing by?
When we watch the hands of clock, is it time that we see moving or only the
device that measures it?
This leads us to wonder if this mysterious thing called time is a thing at all or
merely an abstraction. Does it exist as something in its own right or only as an
idea in our minds? You can argue it both ways. Although the clock seems to
indicate that time is an objective, measurable reality, moving steadily forward at


an invariable pace, we nevertheless perceive time at different speeds. Time flies
when youre having fun is a common adage, yet a moment of anxious
expectation drags on and on, and a minute can seem like an hour.
For being so powerful a force in our lives, time proves rather elusive when we try
to define it. Because our thoughts and the speech we use to communicate those
thoughts involve words, then words are worthy of our attention. Words are
carriers of meaning, and often they convey a good deal more than we give them
credit for. In ordinary usage the wordtime can refer to when something happens
and for how long it lasts. A dictionary I consulted defines time as a measurable
period or interval between two events, or a period or interval during which
something exists, happens, or acts. Another dictionary says that time is a finite
extent of continued existence. Both definitions provide plenty of food for thought.
First of all, time is measurable or quantifiable. Next, it is some sort of duration or
expanse between two of something else. So, for there to be time, other things
also have to exist.
The verb exist is the key. In general usage it means to be or to have reality.
But this word comes from the Latin existere, which literally means to step forth,
to emerge. If we respect the etymology, then technically to exist means to be in
a given condition or state or place, to manifest in a specific way. So, if time is a
finite extent of continued existence, that means that time and manifestation are
inseparable. Whatever forms a part of the universebe it a living creature or an
inanimate objectexists in time.
The word part provides another clue. It turns out that the English
word time ultimately derives from a root meaning to part, to separate, or to
divide. Here is a hint that time is predicated on division or difference and not on
wholeness. Furthermore the word tidederives from the same source as time, and
you are all familiar with the saying that time and tide wait for no man. It is an
observable fact that the tides result from the moons gravitational pull; and the
moon, with its visible waxing and waning, is the natural basis for our concept of
the month, a measurement of time.
The Sanskrit word for time is also revealing. Kala derives from the verbal
root kal,meaning count or calculate. Calculate and kala are linguistically
related, and the Sanskrit word shows a basic understanding of time as something
measurable.
Is time, then, a thing of some sort, an entity having its own reality? Or again, is it
merely a matter of our perception? The answer seems to be yes and yes. What is
most interesting is that both of these opinions occur universallyin the East and


West, in religion and science, in philosophy and the arts. The two views coexist
globally and apparently always have.
At a basic level every understanding of time rests on human awareness of
change, close up in daily life and farther off in the life of the cosmos. The sun,
making its continual journey across the sky, brings the predictable succession of
day and night; the moon, waxing and waning, marks the months; the seasons
come and go; the years pass; the distant stars and galaxies turn in the vastness
of the heavens; and all the while living creatures journey from birth to death.
The religions of the world, ancient and modern alike, present a rich field for the
exploration of time. Concerned with the origin, structure, functioning, and ultimate
end of the universe, every religion adds the dimension of meaning t o the question
of time. Since todays topic was prompted by Easter and Sivaratri, we will focus
attention on the ideas of the two religious traditions that these obser vances
represent.
Cycl ical time
It is safe to say that humankinds first ideas about time arose from observing the
surrounding world. For the earliest people on this earth, knowing about time was
a matter of survival. Living as hunter-gatherers, they had to be aware of the
change of seasons, of when edible plants would reach maturity and of when the
birds and animals they depended on for food would migrate. Later, as
pastoralists, people led a nomadic existence, following their flocks to greener
pastures as the wheel of the year turned. When women and men settled down in
agricultural communities, they had to know when to plant and when to harvest
and how to lay aside food for the fallow season. In other words, they had to know
what time it was.
Early people recognized that time is cyclical, and they discerned in it an all -
embracing and ever-repeating round of creation, sustenance, and dissolution.
After winters dormancy, spring was a time of birth and renewal. Summer brought
growth and fruition, autumn brought ripening and harvest, and winter again
brought a period of rest. For early humans, cyclical time was sacred time,
concerned not only with survival but also with living meaningfully and
harmoniously with the universal process.


An archeologist recently discovered the remains in Goseck, Germany of an
enormous henge, consisting of two concentric palisades with openings aligned to
indicate the solstices and equinoxes. The Goseck henge is one of many ancient
monuments that measured time, but it is now the earliest one we know of. This
gigantic solar calendar is seven thousand years old. Moreover, it also served as a
ceremonial center.
Our early ancestors devised various rituals as reenactments of the divine
functions they saw in nature, and those rituals became a way of ensuring fertility,
agricultural abundance, and human well -being as well as spiritual renewal and the
mitigation of the unwanted effects of accumulated misdeeds. These basic
patterns of thinking, of which the Vedas preserve the earliest textual evidence,
live on even in our modern religions worldwide.
Beyond the immediate concerns of the here-and-now, cyclical time applies not
only to the ever-turning wheel of the yearfor a year is but a tiny measurebut
to the ever-repeating life-cycle of the cosmos, which in Indian tradition unfolds
over billions of years. The important thing to remember about cyclical time
that there is no beginning and no end.
Linear, or event-oriented, time
The idea of cyclical time is based on the experience and observation of the
natural world. Throughout the millennia it has produced many different calendars
and time-keeping systems and has synchronized human activity with the rhythms
of nature. But it is not the only way that human beings interpret the phenomenon
of time.
In the ancient Israelite religion, which eventually transformed itself into both
Judaism and Christianity, the original understanding of time was cyclical. The
ancient Israelites introduced, however, a second way of understanding time. The
book of Genesis opens with the phrase, In the beginning. If there is beginning, it
follows logically that there will be an end. That is the premise underlying the
Abrahamic worldview found in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
How did this view of time arise? When it came to matters of experience other than
those related to the natural cycleslet us call them the events of historythe
Israelites believed they had a unique relationship with God, and that led them to
look for religious meaning in historical happenings. God intervened in worldly
affairs, either to reward or to punish human behavior. This understanding


eventually developed into a view of time as something that reveals the divine
purpose. According to this event-orientedor linearconcept, which passed into
Christianity, time has a beginning, an end, and a purpose.
The Christian view of time is organized around the birth, crucifixion, and
resurrection of Jesus, who stands at the very center of history. That is why the
Western calendar keeps track of time in terms of bc and ad. Everything in history
is reckoned as happening either before or after the appearance of Jesus Christ in
this world. Moreover, in the Christian view, time has an unrepeatable beginning
evolving toward a single end, marked by a final judgment and salvation for the
deserving. Accordingly time becomes an arena of testing and opportunity in
relation to judgment. How a person acts in this life produces eternal
consequences. Here Indian thought disagrees. Of course, we are responsible for
our actions, and of course actions have consequences, but logically a finite action
cannot produce an infinite effect.
As for cyclical time, it has not disappeared entirely from Jewish or Christian
thinking but has been reinterpreted according to the over-arching significance of
linear time. To give just one example, Easter, marking the death and resurrection
of Jesus, coincides with the pagan, cyclically based celebrations of lifes renewal.
The name Easter comes from the Germanic goddess Eostre, whose festival was
held at the spring equinox. Easter bunnies and Easter eggs figure nowhere in the
biblical narrative of Christs passion but are universal symbols of fertility and
renewal tied to springtime. And in Western Christianity Easter falls on the first
Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox.
Independent of any theology, time moves in cycles and also appears to have a
beginning, a middle, and an end. These are basic, observable facts. Whatever
meaning a given religion chooses to read into them is another matter. The
meanings are many and do not all agree, but they all have a common purposeto
teach people how to deal with themselves, with others, with the natural world, and
with ever-present time. In religious contexts this matter of time becomes involved
with questions of deliverance or salvation, of liberation or enlightenment ,
depending on what a religion chooses to call it. Common to all of them is the
same question: If human life is a journey through time, what lies at the end of the
journey?


Eternity
That brings us to the question of eternity. But to define eternity, dont we first
have to know what time is? To sum up thus far, time seems to be both a
measurable, objective reality and a subjective perception. It is a cyclical natural
phenomenon, to be sure, although some people claim that in the bigger picture it
is also a linear unfolding of a divine plan. In our everyday lives we experience
time as change in events and conditions, but we also think of time in terms of
continuity and integration. How does this all fit together? Here philosophers,
theologians, scientists, and spiritual seekers turn their gaze away from the minute
details of the here and now and set their sights toward something grander.
Just as there are different views of time, there are different opinions on eternity.
One is that eternity is an endless extension of timesimply time going on forever
and ever. The other is that eternity has nothing to do with time; it is utter
timelessness. Again, the opinions are not divided along faultlines of East and
West, philosophy and religion, or religion and science. Both views are universally
present.
The ancient Israelites conceived of eternity as endless time, and the earliest
Christians adopted their view. They believed that time is embedded in an eternity
that is essentially everlasting time. In the late fourth or early fifth century
Augustine promoted the idea that the beginning of the world marks the beginning
of time. When we read the entire first verse of Genesis and not just the opening
phrase, it says, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. When
God created the natural world, he created time along with it, but what was going
on before? There is no beforeonly God, who is nontemporal. Augustine
accepted the idea that eternity and time are entirely different from each other and
that eternity, far from being time extended, is timelessness. He got the idea from
the great pagan Neoplatonic philosopher Plotinus, whose philosophy has much in
common with Vedanta and exerted considerable influence on later Jewish,
Christian, and Islamic mystics.
The two definitions of eternity seem mutually contradictoryendless time versus
timelessness. But consider this: the two definitions show that we cannot think of
eternity without the idea of time coming into our awareness. Either we affirm time
or negate it. Is there a way out of this dilemma? There is, and we will find it in the
nondualistic philosophy of the Hindu mystics of Kashmir who were devotees of
the Lord Siva.


Before exploring their ideas, let us first consider the two religious observances
that prompted todays inquiry into time and eternity. Easter and Sivaratri each
present a spiritual message in the form of a narrative. Each narrative attempts in
its own way to settle once and for all the troubling question of human mortality.
Both Easter and Sivaratri are designed to deal with the imperfection of our human
condition.
Through an ancient Israelite myth Christianity teaches that this existential
imperfection stems from Adam and Eves disobedience of God, who has placed
us in this present state where life is harsh and bounded by time. Through the
doctrine of original sin, introduced by Paul and fully developed later by Augustine,
Christianity came to the position that all of humanity carries a burden of guilt. As
an old maxim goes, In Adams fall, we sinned all. For the expiation of sin, the
ancient Israelites practiced the ritual slaughter of animals, and in Christian
thinking, Gods own son, Jesus, became the ultimate sacrifice, the lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world. One only needs to believe this, and through
faith comes salvation. The reward is eternal life in heavena restoration to the
state of original grace in the divine presence. Thus Easter, which commemorates
the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, signals the final triumph over death.
Sivaratri performs a similar function. In different parts of India there are different
narratives to explain what Sivaratri commemorates. Some of these are variations
on a theme while others are totally unrelated. The story you are about to hear is
one I heard from my guru, Swami Prabhavananda, who used to tell it during the
annual Sivaratri observance in Hollywood.
Once there was a peasant who eked out a living for his family by going into the
forest to gather firewood, which he would sell to t he villagers. As time went on,
the supply dwindled, and the peasant found it harder and harder to find sufficient
wood. He had to work longer and venture ever farther into the forest. One day,
after going deeper and deeper into the forest without finding much wood at all, he
noticed, to his dismay, that the sun was far past its zenith. It was too late to start
back. There was not sufficient time to see him safely home. Darkness would soon
descend, and the forest at night was filled with peril. What could he do? Sick at
heart, he climbed to the lower branch of a tree and settled there. At least this
position off the ground might afford a modicum of safety. After a while he began
to feel the pangs of hunger, for he had not eaten since early morning. With
darkness descending, he began to feel cold, and as he shivered, some of the


leaves shook loose from the tree and fell earthward. The cries of wild animals and
other strange sounds echoed through the darkness, increasing his distress, and in
fright he wept, his tears falling earthward. All night long he kept awake, crying out
to Siva to relieve his misery. And then, in the morning, with the first rays of the
sun, he was blessed with the vision of the Lord.
What does this story mean? The poor peasant represents the human soul,
wandering in the forest of the world. Notice the role that time plays here. He has a
certain amount of time to accomplish his days work and head back home. On this
particular day time does not work in his favor and in fact traps him in the f orest
overnight, where the darkness impresses on him the dangers lurking all about. In
the same way, the darkness of maya, of our fundamental misunderstanding of the
world, causes us the fear and anguish that are an inevitable part of human
experience. The peasant fears for his life as he sits awake all night through a
painfully slow journey through time. We sometimes recall our own mortality and
fear for our lives as we witness the changes around us. The peasants
predicament represents the human condition when things get rough.
During the night, his shivering causes some leaves to fall from the tree, and his
tears likewise fall earthward. Unbeknown to the poor peasant, the tree in which he
sought refuge was a vilva tree, sacred to Lord Siva. He sought refuge in a holy
place. Not having eaten and not being able to sleep, he fasted and kept vigil and
turned his mind toward Siva. Unbeknown to him there was a stone linga at the
base of the tree, and when the vilvaleaves fell on it and his tears bathed it, he
unknowingly was fulfilling the conditions and performing the actions of Sivas
worship. And in the morning he was blessed with the vision of Siva, which means
the knowledge of his own true being as the imperishable, ever blissful Self. As a
realized soul, he experienced eternity, and that state of spiritual liberation came
to him through the Lords grace.
Easter and Sivaratri each represent a way of dealing with the suffering and
imperfection of human life and with the fact of human mortality. Each presents a
solution which involves divine grace. But beyond those generalities, the two
represent very different theologies. For Chri tians, the resurrection of Christ is the
pivotal event in history, a unique event, a universal atonement through which
suffering humanity is promised eternal life. For Hindus, the poor peasant who
received enlightenment after a terrifying night in the forest does not stand at the
center of history but rather represents every embodied soul of every time and
place and the inherent possibility in everyone of Self-realization. Here history has
no center, and time has no eschatological role. Time is cyclical, with an ever -


repeating beginning, middle, and end, and all are equally important. They
represent the divine roles of God as creator, sustainer, and dissolver of the
universeas Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva.
Threefol d patterns
This threefold pattern is one of many threefold patterns that underlie much of
Indian thought, and they will help us to understand the meaning of time more
fully. We already know that our experience of time is connected to the awareness
of change, and that where there is change, there has to be difference. Where
there is difference there has to be more than one. Now, whenever we think of two,
there is always a third implied, and that is something that relates the two. For
example, there cannot be a knower and a known without the knowing. All three
are essential to the manifestation of the world as we know it.
Also in threes, Indian philosophy speaks of difference (bheda), of unity-in-
difference (bhedabheda), and of nondifference (abhedha). Practically
synonymous are the designations of duality (dvaita), an intermediate phase
(dvaitadvaita), and nonduality (advaita). Without the experience of difference
(bheda), we would be absorbed in the undifferentiated bliss of abheda. Without
the duality, or better the plurality, of phenomenal existence, we would all abide in
our true identity as the oneness of atman,the infinite Self or Siva.
Recently, a friend who knows my interests, sent me an e-mail that illustrates this
same point. Two blondes, named Carol and Donnaand by the way, its OK for
me to tell this story because I was a blond before my hair turned graytwo
blondes volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and were put to work siding a house.
After a while Donna noticed that Carol would reach into her nail pouch, pull out a
nail, look at it, and either hammer it in or toss it over her shoulder.
This intrigued Donna, who asked, Carol, what are you doing? Why are you
throwing those nails away?
Carol looked at her friend in disbelief that an explanation was even necessary but
answered, About half of these nails are defective. See, they have the head on
the wrong end.
Donna exclaimed, You silly thing! Those nails arent defecti ve! Theyre for the
other side of the house.


It may not be readily apparent that this story embodies a profound philosophical
teaching, but actually it does. As I said, where there are two, there are threetwo
polarities and something in between. Carol, who discarded some of the nails for
having the head on the wrong end, is operating in the realm of duality or
difference. She sees everything in terms of either/or. Either the nail is OK or it
isnt. In our normal mode of thinking we do very much the same t hing. But when
we see everything in terms of difference and duality, when our views become so
rigid that things, events, people, and ideas are either acceptable or not, we miss
out on a lot. Look at the ground behind Carol, strewn with perfectly good nails,
and see how wasteful this sort of thinking can be. There is nothing wrong with any
of the nails Carol threw away; the fault lies in her misperception of them. Her
thinking represents the outlook of dvaita (duality)or bheda(difference).
We are tempted to laugh at Donna, who recognized her friends folly and pointed
out that the nails with the head on the wrong end are for the other side of the
house, but theres some truth in what she says. She represents the intermediate
position known asdvaitadvaita or bhedabheda unity in difference. Her thinking is
only halfway bogged down in either/or distinctions. She sees the utility of all the
nails. Theres nothing wrong with any of them; its just that some are for the other
side of the house. In her perception the idea of difference still persists.
So much for dvaita and dvaitadvaita. What about advaitanonduality? Its quite
simple. If either Carol or Donna represented that state of consciousness, there
would be no story.

The Saiva view of time
Now were ready to consider the Saiva view of time. The threefold pattern of two
poles and something in between comes into play here also. In fact, the non
dualistic Shaivism of Kashmir is known as the Trikaastra, or triadic teaching.
Here the eternal, changeless reality that is called Parabrahman in Advaita
Vedanta is called Paramaiva, the supreme Siva. Paramaiva is pure
consciousness, the ultimate state of non dual reality beyond even the idea of the
Absolute. As Sri Ramakrishna pointed out, Both the Absolute and the Relative
belong to one and the same Reality. It is all oneneither two nor many. The
manifold has come from the One alone, the Relative from the Absolute. There is a
state of consciousness where the many (multiplicity) disappears, and the One, as
well . It is impossible to explain Brahman . As Sri Ramakrishna also noted,
One cannot think of the Absolute without the relative, or of the Relative without
the Absolute. But that is just the point: the supreme reality is beyond thought, for


thought involves difference, change, and sequenceand those are the
ingredients of time. About nine hundred years before Ramakrishna, the towering
philosopherseer of Trika Saivism, Abhinavagupta, wrote, In Paramasiva
the yogin rises beyond the experience of Siva, which is the transcendental void,
and attains the highest experience of all: Paramasiva is the state of
transcendence in immanence and immanence in transcendence. This is the
ultimate state of undivided consciousness, and it reconciles time and eternity.
Plotinus, the great Neoplatonic mystic who described spiritual realization as the
flight of the alone to the Alone, taught that the One is the transcendence of
separation, and not the negation of manyness. For him, One is a quality and not a
number. Later we will see how this idea worked its way into the understanding of
time in Christian theology.
In Trika teaching the sole reality of consciousness experiences itself at
three different levels, or in three different modes. The experience of the
Divine knowing only itself is referred to as the para, or supreme, experience.
There is no creation. But what about the creation ? The world and all its
living beings are made of the same reality of consciousness and exist in it,
but the world is consciousness experienced as divided, differentiated, and
conditioned. This state is called apara, not supreme. The universe is
Sivas own self-expression, consciously projected out of his own
overflowing joy, born of his own sense of wonder (camatkara), and willingly
entered into in a spirit of spontaneous playfulness. Siva does this through
the power of maya, which is his own power of self-limitation. Mayais
neither para nor apara but constitutes the intermediate state of experience
known parpar.
The reason that time is so hard to define is that it belongs to this in between
state. Advaita Vedanta teaches that maya is neither real nor wholly unreal but
indefinable (anirvacaniya). With a slightly different take, the Trikasastra teaches
that the one reality, which is consciousness, has the above-mentioned three
levels of experience. The supreme or para level is also called suddhadhva, the
pure order. This is the experience of unityof non-difference (abheda), of non-
duality (advaita), of pure consciousness-in-itself, of pure being. The not-supreme,
or apara, level is called auddhadhva, the impure order. This is the experience of
manyness. In this state, being is experienced as our day-to-day existence. Note
the semantic distinction between being and existence that was pointed out earlier.
Being simply is; existence is being in a conditioned state. Between the poles of
transcendental being-in-itself and phenomenal existence lies the intermediate or


pure-impure level of consciousness, the suddhsuddhadhva, otherwise known
as maya.
To repeat, Trika Saivism regards maya as Sivas own power of limitation. It works
in various ways, and the one that concerns us here is the cosmic principle
called kla.Through his klasakti, his power of time, Lord Siva appears to limit his
own eternality, his nityatva, in order to participate in temporal existence. Through
the power of time Siva manifests all things, sustains them, and dissolves them. All
the while, Siva knows himself as eternal being, infinite and unchanging, but that
same divine consciousness, in the conditioned state, sees itself as a host of finite
soulsas all of us, living out our finite spans of existence in time. To us time may
appear as the frightening devourer of all things. Thinking of Siva as presiding over
cosmic dissolution, we call him Klabhairava, the terror of time personified. But as
the master of time, Siva is imperishable eternality, untouched by times
movement.
As the expression of divine power, time appears both as successive moments and
as duration, as change and continuity. In that sense Sivas own commanding
power of time makes things orderly. To analyze further, the succession ( krama) of
time depends on difference, and the manifestation of the universe is an
expression of difference or multiplicity. In Trika philosophy this manifestation is
called abhasa. In general the word means splendor, light, color, or
appearance. As a technical term of the Trikasastra it can mean the projection of
consciousness, the phenomenality of sensory experience, and even a luminous
display. Think of abhasa in terms of your TV screen. The images it produces are
endlessly varied, yet the screen itself remains the constant medium on which and
from which those images shine. In the same way, all the drama and comedy of
this universe shine forth in successive moments from the single, unchanging
reality of consciousness that is Siva. This divine play, this lila, takes place in the
greater context of the eternal constant, the nitya.
Think about all the changing images that impress themselves on your awareness
in a single day, in a single hour, in a single minute. Succession cannot be
separated from perception, and succession depends on the sense of before and
after (purvapara). Therefore, according to Trika doctrine, time is not a self-
existent reality but a principle of relation that colors our perceptions and thoughts
in terms of past, present, and future. Time (kala) is one with sequence (krama); it
is nothing but a succession in mental activitywhat Patanjali calls cittavritti
based necessarily on difference. Do you remember that the English
word time derives from a root meaning to part, to divide? Trika Saivism
teaches that the sense of passing time is based on the movement of awareness


from one perception or one conception to the next, a movement possible only
because we sense division and difference. In the ultimate subjectivity of the Self,
the atman, there is no division, and where consciousness is undivided, there can
be no timeonly eternity.
Time in fact belongs to that in-between, pure-impure order known as
thesuddhsuddhadhva, and it works as an invisible link between the empirical
finite and the transcendental infinite. We have our existence in time and
our being in eternity. Consciousness, whichever is, descends and ascends. Siva,
expressing himself through the manifest universe, is consciousness descending
to the level of our experience. The same Siva, withdrawing the universe back into
Himself, is consciousness ascending to the experience of its original
transcendence.
Masteri ng time
With some understanding of what time is all about, can we put this knowledge to
practical use? Every religion offers some sort of path to salvation, liberation,
enlightenment, or Self-knowledge. The one proposed by Christianity centers on
the significance of Easter, the central moment in history. In biblical theology there
are two Greek words for timechronos and kairos. The term chronos, which
gives us our English words chronic, chronicle, and chronology, denotes the
extensiveness and movement of time, the conditioning under which our mortal
lives unfold. The other term, kairos,suggests quality. Remember that Plotinus,
attempting to describe the Divine, said thatOne denotes a quality and not a
number. In Christian theology kairos denotes a decisive moment laden with crisis
or opportunity. Easter is just such a moment of kairos, a moment marked by the
crisis of the crucifixion and the opportunity of resurrection and eternal life for the
faithful.
Christians regard this as a gift of divine grace. Grace also figures in the Sivaratri
narrative, and throughout Saiva religion. To understand this concept of grace, we
first note that Lord Siva has five functions. There is nigrahahe conceals himself.
How does he do this? By projecting the universe, sustaining it, and withdrawing
itthrough the functions ofsrishti, sthiti, and samhara. And then again, he reveals
himself. That fifth function of self-revelation is called anugraha, and that is what
we know as divine grace. Although the idea of grace immediately suggests its
inescapable companion, self-effort, Sri Ramakrishna easily resolved that thorny
question by explaining that the breeze of Gods grace is continually blowing and
we need only set the sail of the mind to catch it. The opportunity is always there.


The Samkhya philosophy and Patanjalis closely related Yoga darsana offer a
rational, scientific method for enlightenment based on the observation and
management of our own consciousness. As Patanjali points out, when the mind is
perfectly concentrated and fixed unwaveringly on a single object, we lose
awareness of time. This is true even in the waking state when something grabs
hold of our attention and involves us totally. When we are able to attain that same
state of involvement during meditation, we may be surprised to see that a long
while has passed, according to the clock, without our being aware of any passage
of time at all. The explanation is simple: time and change are inseparable, but for
the one-pointed mind there is no change, and therefore no perception of time. In
the highest samadhi, called asamprajnata, when thought ceases entirely and
every movement in consciousness, every cittavritti, is stilled, there remains only
awareness of the ever-present reality between the thoughtspurusha or
consciousness in its purest statethe experience of eternity. Interestingly the
Vedanta calls this same, highest state nirvikalpa samadhi, which means
absorption free of differentiated perception.
As Trika Saivism teaches, the level of our ordinary awareness is
called apara (not-supreme), and the level of divine awareness is
called para (supreme). Between them there is the intermediate level
called parapara. This is maya. When our awareness rises to the parapara level,
as we begin to penetrate the veils of maya, we become receptive to
instantaneous, intuitive flashes without sequence. An entire idea flashes in the
mind in all its phases at once, in its undivided wholeness without any reference to
time. This state, known as visvasphara is exactly what the Sanskrit calls it, a
universal expansion of consciousness. It is an instant of opportunity and insight
that flashes like lightning and takes us momentarily beyond our smallness and
limitation and gives an intimation of the spiritual goal, of our own infinitude and
eternality. The realized soul, at last attaining the goal, declares, Sivo hamI am
Siva.
In conclusion
The Sanskrit word for eternity is nityatva, which literally means the state of
abiding in ones own inherent being. Echoing this same view, Emmanuel Kant
wrote that time is a form of intuition through which sensory impressions are
received. Time is subjective perception and has no objective reality. Reality,
which Kant called the thing-in-itself, is not in time but can only be thought of in
time. The thing-in-itself remains unknowable to ordinary, temporal awareness.
Kants philosophical views anticipate the ideas that Einstein expressed in


scientific terms. For Einstein time and space are variants coordinated from the
observers own standpoint, in relation to which all else is moving. This is highly
reminiscent of Vedantic teaching, which calls the true Self the eternal witness
(sakshin) and the world jagat,meaning that which moves. Likewise, the
Trikasastra offers a view of the universe not unlike that of present day science.
That should not be surprising, given that both are disciplines based on
observation, reasoning, and experimentation.
In a book entitled Cosmology and Creation, Paul Brockelman, a professor of
religious studies and philosophy at the University of New Hampshire, wrote that to
be consistent with contemporary science we can no longer put God outside of
creation or even beneath it as a mere foundation. We need to find the Divine
within nature yet to avoid reducing it to a finite thing or even [to] the whole of
finitude. He writes that God must be immanent in nature, not as a finite part of it,
but as the infinite and mysterious power-to-be that shines through it.
Brockelman calls God the beyond of existence, the mysterious indefinability of
reality available in nature itself directly available in the experience of
wonder. There is nothing in Brockelmans book to indicate that the professor is
familiar with the writings of the Saiva mystics, but he speaks the same language
as they do. He speaks of wonder, and we cannot but recall that sense of joyful
wonder what Saiva teaching calls camatkara. That wonder is the wonder of
infinity and eternity, a glimpse in the here and now of the indescribable bliss of
the Self. Realizing our true identity as Siva, as Brahman, as atman, is lifes
highest purpose and the goal of all spiritual practicea practice possible only in
this realm of time. So, even though we cannot hold on to time, we can certainly
seize the moment