Questioner (Q): I want to know, essentially, the relationship between the material world and consciousness. Is the body, you know, just like putting together a few chemicals? And, how does consciousness come from an unconscious body? Or.. is it the other way around?
Acharya Prashant (AP): Obviously. Yeah, yeah! Obviously, that cannot happen. That cannot happen. Asat (false) cannot give rise to Sat (Eternal, Absolute Truth), obviously. So, Vedānta answers that in a beautiful way. Very beautiful way. And, when you will ponder over it, you will find it to be so obvious. Vedānta says, “There is no duality.
Therefore, no watertight distinction between the unconscious and the conscious."
This Jada-Cetana duality is refuted by Vedānta. [Jada: material body, material entity; Cetana: pure consciousness] Vedānta, in its essence, is non-dualistic, as we had said a while back.
So, this duality–Jada and Cetana; unconscious and conscious; as in man being conscious and the world being unconscious; or I being conscious and this pen being Jada, or just material–this is not accepted by Vedānta.
This is there in Sāṅkhyayoga, the duality between Puruṣa (spirit) and Prakṛti (material nature): there is Prakṛti, and there is Puruṣa, and these two are somewhat at odds with each other because the Puruṣa often gets corrupted by Prakṛti, and such things.
Vedānta takes the Sankhyan concept to a greater and more refined height. It says, “These two are one!” “These two are one. They appear different.” They appear different. The consciousness, that is the perceiver, is also the perceived object. It's just that the perceiver is in illusion, therefore, he thinks of the perceived object as an objective thing and objective truth or an objective fact in itself.
Therefore, Advaitavāda is also called as Māyāvāda; we just talked of illusion, Māyā. These two are not distinct at all. That what you are seeing, is nothing but you. Therefore, that which you are seeing has never been created at all. It is only being projected. In Vedānta, there is nothing called creation or creator.
No creation; no creator. Just projection. Nobody created the world. Vivartavāda: Brahman (Eternal Truth) appears as this myriad world because of Māyā (illusory power). There is just Vivartana (transformation); no creation. So, this is all in unity. All distinctions that we see are really false. And those distinctions that we see outside are fundamentally the distinctions within (pointing to the mind) the Perceiver.
Because the mind is fragmented, because the mind is conditioned by several influences, therefore, we see the same kind of diversity outside of ourselves. And hence, one characteristic of the Brahmavid, or the Jñānī, the Realized one is that differences stop mattering to him. This physical apparatus called ‘the eyes’ do see differences. They will see black as black, and white as white.
But black and white will stop being meaningful or material to the Brahmavid, the knower of Brahman, or the Brahmaleen, the one who is one with Brahman. These distinctions stop mattering. This is a thing of great importance if you go into it. Because our world is reeling under the tyranny of diversity. All diversity is conflict because all diversity is, fundamentally, division.
You are different from me; A is different from B. And, if A is different from B, A and B fight. And today we have more and more means to fight each other. Therefore, we need something that tells us that all these distinctions are fundamentally false. They will keep appearing, I know. Māyā is very formidable. Redoubtable Māyā is not going to leave you free so easily. So, you will continue seeing differences, obviously. But, at least the punch in the importance that these differences carry for you, would have gone. Somewhere you would realize that identifying yourself with a splinter does not make much sense. It, therefore, does not make much sense to commit yourself, put your life and all your energy into something that is fundamentally false.
Then you will not want to fight the other because he carries a different or opposite identity or ideology. And this kind of a thing comes only from Vedānta, where the false is not the opposite of the Truth, but projection of the Truth. Māyā is not against Brahman; in some sense, Māyā is the daughter of Brahman. You don't have a satan here who is fighting God. You have a mischievous Brahman here, who comes up with Māyā. And Māyā, again, is not evil.
Māyā is worshiped. We had Navadurga, which is an entire celebration of Māyā. Maa Mahāmāyā– she is being respected, loved. Because, she is not only the one who keeps you in illusion, she is also the one who will lead you to liberation and redemption.
And this is a much more simple, solid, authentic model of reality than anything else, at least, I know of.
