Vedantasara : 5.

II. SUPERIMPOSITION:



41. Ignorance has been designated as individual and collective on account of its pervading the units and the aggregate.


 42. The individual ignorance, on account of its association with the inferior being, is characterized by impure Sattva.


 43. Consciousness associated with this has limited knowledge and is devoid of the power of lordship; it is called Prajna on account of its being the illuminator of individual ignorance.


 44. It is called Prajna as it is deficient in illumination on account of its association with a dull limiting adjunct.


 45. The individual ignorance, associated with it is also known as the causal body on account of its being the cause of egoism etc., and as the blissful sheath because it is full of bliss and covers like a sheath; it is further known as dreamless sleep since into it everything is dissolved; and for this reason it is also designated as the state of dissolution of the gross and subtle phenomena.


 46. In the state of dreamless sleep both Isvara and Prajna, through a very subtle function of ignorance illumined by Consciousness, enjoy happiness, as in the Sruti passage: "Prajna, the enjoyer of bliss, with Consciousness for its aid (is the third aspect)” (Mand. Up. 5); as also from such experience of a man awaking from dreamless sleep as, “I slept happily, I did not know anything.”


47. This aggregate and individual ignorance are identical like a forest and the trees, or a reservoir and the water.


 48. As the Akasa enclosed by the forest is identical with the Akasa enclosed by the trees, or as the Akasa reflected in the water is the same as the Akasa reflected in the reservoir, similarly Isvara and Prajna associated with these (aggregate and individual ignorance) are identical. There are such Sruti passages as, He is the Lord of all, (He is omniscient, He is the inner controller, He is the source of all, He is the cause of the origin and destruction of creatures)” (Mand. Up. 6).


 49. Like the unlimited Akasa which is the substratum of the Akasa enclosed by the forest and the trees, or of the Akasa which is reflected in the water and the reservoir, there is an unlimited Consciousness which is the substratum of the aggregate and the individual ignorance as well as of the Consciousness (Isvara and Prajna) associated with them. This is called the “Fourth”. As in such Sruti passages as, “That which is (tranquil), auspicious and without a second, That the wise conceive of as the Fourth aspect. (He is the Self; He is to be known)” (Mand. Up. 7).


 50. This Pure Consciousness which is known as the “Fourth”, when not discriminated, like a red-hot iron-ball, from ignorance and the Consciousness with which it is associated, becomes the direct meaning of the great Vedic dictum (“Thou art That”), and when discriminated, it gives us its implied meaning.


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