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48
The Bhāgavata-purāna
[CH. equilibrium-a state in which all His energies are sleeping as it were. By His own inherent energy He breaks the equilibrium of His sleeping energy and sets Himself to the work of the creationthe prakrti with its evolutes—and thereby associates them with jīvas, which are merely His parts, and which thus are deluding the dualistic experience of the world, which they enjoy and for which they suffer; and He also shows them the right way by instructing them through the Vedas? The self in its transcendent nature is pure experience and as such is devoid of and is absolutely unassociated with any kind of objective form. The association of objectivity and of content is as illusory as creations in dreams, and must be regarded as products of māyā.
Puruşa as pure experience (anubhava-svarūpa) is to be differentiated and comprehended as different from passing mental states, as the content of the waking, dream and dreamless stages by the method of agreement and difference (anvaya-vyatireka). For, through the contents of experience in the various constituents involved in the mental states, that which remains constant, like a thread in a garland of pearls, is the pure experiencer, the self. Self is therefore to be regarded as different from the contents of the mental states which it illuminates 3.
sa vai kilāyam puruşah purätano ya eka āstd aviseşa ātmani agre gunebhyo jagad-ātmaniśvare nimilitätman nisi supta-śaktisu sa eva bhūyo nijavīrya-choditam sva-java-māyām prakytim sisyksatim anāma-rupātmani rupa-namani vidhitsamāno' musasāra śāstrakrt.
Bhāgavata, 1. 10. 21, 22. åtma-māyām ste rājan parasyänubhavātmanah na ghațetärthasambandhaḥ svapnadraștur ivāñjasă.
Ibid. 11. 9. 1. Illusion or māyā is defined as that which manifests non-existent objects but is not manifested itself.
rte'rtham yat pratiyeta na pratiyeta cātmani tad vidyād átmano māyām yathābhāso tathā tamah.
Ibid. 11. 9. 33. anvaya-vyatirekena vivekena satătmană sarga-sthāna-samāmnāyair vimrsadbhir asatvaraih budher jāgaranam svapnah susuptir iti vyttayah tā yenaivānubhūyante so'dhyaksah purusah parah.
Ibid. vir. 7. 24, 25.
