Selections from the ShAkta upaniShads -1 (bahvR^icha)

[Prashant Sharma]

On Fri, 24 Apr 1998, Chandran, Nanda (NBC) wrote:

> Greetings Anand and much obliged for your constructive response!
>
> I'll sum up what've stated and let me point what I'm finding difficult
> to comprehend :
>
> - The empirical world is an illusion
> - Our name and form aspects are part of this illusion, but the
> underlying essence, the existence-conciousness-bliss, is the actual
> reality
>
> >"I am such and such a person with such and such a body, such and such
> >possessions, etc.",
> So who's the "I"? Is it the name-form or the sat-chit-ananda?
>
> >The gist is that when you start imposing limits on your Sat-Chit-Ananda
> >aspect, then you are indulging in illusion.
> Again who's the "you"? The name-form or the sat-chit-ananda?
>
> My point is if "I" am actually the sat-chit-ananda, which is the Eternal
> Absolute, how can my name and form and the illusions affect me? If they
> affect me doesn't it imply - change, to which "I" being the Eternal
> Absolute am impervious to?
>

        I hope this doesn't intervene in the ongoing debate with Sri
Ananda. I would like to point out that the "I" that is actually the
sat-chit-Ananda is not the one that is being affected by illusion. All
that we perceive ourselves to be, based on our memory, that *is* the
illusion.  When that disappears what is left is sat-chit-Ananda, which is
the substratum on which the illusion is based. This illusion arises
because of mAyA.

Regards,
Prashant.