Advaita from First Principles (III): The Vivekachudamani Question

“Vivekachudamani”, as we all know, is the important Advaita text written in lovely Sanskrit verses by Sri Sankaracarya. Sri Bhagavan Himself did a free rendering in prose of the work in Tamil. In fact, not only did Bhagavan translate the text, He also composed an introduction to the work and 2 sublime invocatory verses. [Herein the translations are from “Vivekachudamani of Sri Sankaracarya”, by Swami Madhavananda, RK Math].

The text is in the form of a dialogue between the Guru and disciple. Over the course of 580 verses, it covers every aspect of Advaita. We pick up from the point the Guru has been explaining the nature of Maya or Avidya (Ignorance, Nescience):

108. (The Guru says:) Avidya or Maya, called also the Undifferentiated, is the power of the Lord. She is without beginning, is made up of the three gunas and is superior to the effects (as their cause). She is to be inferred by one of clear intellect only from the effects She produces. It is She who brings forth this whole universe.

There are several verses on similar lines, elaborating on the characteristics of Avidya. One point emphasised particularly is – that Avidya is BEGINNINGLESS. This prompts the disciple to come up with this incredibly pertinent query:

192. (The disciple questioned:) Be it through delusion or otherwise that the Supreme Self has come to consider Itself as the Jiva, this superimposition is without beginning, and that which has no beginning cannot be supposed to have an end either.

193.   Therefore the Jivahood of the soul also must have no end, and its transmigration must continue for ever. How then can there be liberation for the soul? Kindly enlighten me on this point, O revered Master.

I call this the “Vivekachudamani” Question, and every believer in Advaita needs to understand the answer to this riddle. Because if a logically robust answer is not possible, then Liberation Itself becomes impossible in the Advaita system.

To all of us who have been reading spiritual texts for some time, the nature of Maya or Avidya described as "beginningless" is almost drilled into us. Every Guru and spiritual writer says the same thing, so much so, we accept it automatically now without a second thought. But we do not realize the enormous implications of the same: if Maya or Avidya is without any beginning, it logically should also be without any end, and thus there should be no scope of removing it ever; and as long as Maya is, It will veil the Self or Brahman; thus all sadhana is wasted, and no liberation is possible for the Jiva.   

I believe that Vivekachudamani is the only text which squarely addresses this seemingly vexed issue, though it is peripherally tackled in other works. Sri Sankara answers the query perfectly, in a few simple verses. But I must confess that for a long time I never really understood the answer, and the deep but simple logic that lay behind the seemingly innocuous explanation. Yes, beginningless Maya can have an end, and that logic can be derived in a simple manner from first principles. 

Advaita from First Principles

First let us examine the nature of Avidya described as being “beginningless”. How can something be without a “beginning”? After all, for every object that we see in the world, we can attribute a beginning for.

Actually, everything that there IS (or not), can only be beginningless. Startling as it may seem, the statement holds true logically, always. Let us examine how:

A thing may be “real”, or “not real”, or both real and unreal [not getting into unnecessary complexities by also taking the “neither” option here]. If something is “real” it would always be real and always existing, now, in the past, and forever. Its existence then would be beginningless. If something is “unreal” then it would never exist, neither now, nor in the past, nor in the future. Thus its non-existence is beginningless. And then either way too, if something is both real and unreal, it necessarily has to be beginningless as well, as each of the constituents are so.

Now something both real and unreal is what Avidya is. It is real because it is seen (the world is seen & experienced) and it is unreal because it disappears in deep sleep (is sublated, the world is not seen and experienced). Thus it is called indeterminable [though a lot of complex arguments also further go into “indeterminability”]. In any event, Avidya therefore is beginningless.

Also, if it were not beginningless it would have a beginning; thus it would then have a cause; so either then we have to say that Brahman is the cause, and thus pollute Brahman with causality; or we say that another entity was the cause of Avidya; then we have to find another entity to be the cause of this entity & we have infinite regress. So Avidya cannot have a cause.

[Why then are you, I, the table in front, or the earth below NOT beginningless? Because we, and all these, are subsumed within Avidya. All the objects/entities of the world are the “effects” of Avidya; these all have Avidya as their “cause”, and thus they necessarily have to have a beginning].

And then, because “beginningless” Avidya is “indeterminable”, it can have an end - because it is both real & unreal at the same time. Of course, if it were real only, then it would exist always, much like the Self. But, because it is also unreal at the same time, and is actually of the nature of an “illusion”, it can revert to its unreal nature, and be as if it never existed. So theoretically, the possibility of its destruction (or reversion to complete non-existence) is always there. And once it is destroyed, it is as if it were totally non-existent and never there, because there is no cause for it; and thus, nothing is there to make it arise again.

[As an aside: How did it first arise? We don’t know and can never know. We are just presented with it. The Scriptures say that when vasana seeds sprout, Avidya arises. But in terms of logic all that can be said is that - when I, as Jiva, have awareness, the world & Avidya is presented to me as an indeterminable & beginningless entity. I have to take it from there].

Hopefully, the foregoing gives a flavour of how simple logical reasoning stands behind the averments made in the great texts.

The Vivekachudamani text itself answers the question thus:

194.   (The Master replied:)  Thou hast rightly questioned, O learned man! Listen therefore attentively: The imagination which has been conjured up by delusion can never be accepted as a fact.

195.  But for delusion there can be no connection of the Self – which is unattached, beyond activity, and formless – with the objective world, as in the case of blueness etc. with reference to the sky.

196.   The Jivahood of the Atman, the Witness, which is beyond qualities and beyond activity, and which is realized within as knowledge and Bliss Absolute – has been superimposed by the delusion of the buddhi, and is not real. And because it is by nature an unreality, it ceases to exist when the delusion is gone.

197.   It exists only so long as the delusion lasts, being caused by indiscrimination due to an illusion. The rope is supposed to be the snake only so long as the mistake lasts, and there is no more a snake when the illusion has vanished. Similar is the case here.

198-199.   Avidya or Nescience and its effects are likewise considered as beginningless. Bit with the rise of Vidya or Realization, the entire effects of Avidya, even though beginningless, are destroyed together with their root – like dreams on waking up from sleep. It is clear that the phenomenal universe, even though without beginning is not eternal – like previous non-existence [“pragabhava”].