The Nature of the Mundane World

The mundane world is normally a non=entity unless the person shows interest in it! If I am not interest in the day-to-day happenings the world simply does not exist to me. A person lives and works in a very narrow sphere of his span of 60 or 80 years of life and much of it is lost in childhood and old age. The life is so restricted that the jiva cannot look beyond its survival. The happenings in distant parts of the world  is of  no concern unless it affects him directly. Under these circumstances, it is quite obvious that the mundane world is of no consequence. The world has seen two global wars, recession, floods, famines, droughts, earthquakes, tsunamis, and many other havocs that almost threatened the very life on earth. The human evolution is quite recent in the history of the earth. The very existence of life seems to be a miracle, a magical or illusory one!

  The illusory nature of the world is explained by many sages in simple words. The world simply does not exist! The world disappears even if we close our eyes for a minute! The deep sleep state (sushupti) is all consciousness and the jiva rests peacefully unaware of the happenings in the world; the jiva does not know what lies next to it in deep sleep. The unconscious person or a person in coma is oblivious to his very existence! A yogi, on the other hand, is fully aware of his existence, but not interested in all that goes around him! Thus, it is now necessary for a troubled jiva to find solution to its misery, pain and death like Prince Gautama!

   A few simple questions also solve the riddle of this illusory world. Let's ask ourselves two simple questions- "What do I want? and Why do I want it? The answer will solve our problem. First, want or desire creates the phenomenal objective sensuous and the transient world. The moment I find this will not give me absolute happiness, I discard this! Second, the moment I realize the secret behind creation the very magic of life disappears! I am just a product of food (earth/soil)and my existence as a physical body is highly limited. This brings renunciation. Sage Vashishta says, "Due to ignorance about the Atman the world appears to exist. It ceases to exist when the knowledge of the Atman is acquired." This is like the rope appearing like the snake due to ignorance and the illusory snake disappears when the light falls on it. 

  A jnyani, yogi, will go beyond all dualities. For a jnyani the Sunrays and the Sun are the same, the ocean and its waves and the fire and its heat are same. He goes beyond all these differences. We all know how often we are fooled by the shining metals that are passed as gold, cheap soft cloth as the valuable silken, etc. The ignorance that separate the thread from the cloth, the pot from its clay, and the  gold from the glittering jewelry- all disappear with dawn of knowledge! Everything appears  to exist due to erroneous thinking. Experience of the existence of everything arises from 'brahmn' who is Consciousness itself.   Prajnyan brahmn |