________________
SAYS the Pupil.
VICHAR MALA.
BOOK V.
Knowledge well I have acquired, Bhagavan through thy kindness.
Of what nature are Self and World? My mind wants to know.
or
Bhagavan, whether in Self, phenomena are real otherwise; if real, knowledge of Brahma would fail to effect its destruction, and if unreal it would not be seen and felt by the senses; so please let me hear what you have to say. [The professor admits the latter view to show ultimately its unreality by what is called withdrawal or rescission (apavada).
Guru.
My son never confound the world
With Self, and take it to be real :
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For that mistake of its being Iswar, Is only a function of mind.
Pupil. You are never, in mistake even, to regard the world as real and same as Self, for naturally it is non-existent, hence unreal; and what is so, can never be taken for a reality; and when phenomena are non-existent, where can Iswar be, inasmuch as he is said to be the creator? that is to say, in the absence of the product of creation, how can there possibly be a creator? Therefore both Iswara and Jiva are imaginary as the Panchadasi says: "Maya with the reflected shadow of intelligence creates both Iswar and Jiva." So says the Sruti, and that establishes the derivation of this vast material expanse from Maya with reflection of intelligence, hence for this unreality it is imaginary, "for no product of imagination
