Tripura Rahasya

Lord Dattatreya

The sage's son continued,

The world cannot be demonstrably ascertained. Space is simply void, serving for the location of materials. The universe is, always and all-through, a phenomenon in the Self. The question then arises how consciousness, being void, is dense at the same time. Just as a mirror, though, dense and impenetrable, contains the image, so also pure consciousness is dense and impenetrable and yet displays the universe by virtue of its self-sufficiency. Though consciousness is all-pervading, dense and single, it still holds the mobile and immobile creation within it, wonderful in its variety, with no immediate or ultimate cause for it. Just as the mirror remains unaffected by the passage of different images and yet continues to reflect as clearly as before, so also the one consciousness illumines the waking and dream states which can be verified by proper meditation.

O King! Examine again your daydreams and mental imagery. Though they are perfect in detail, yet they are no less mental. Consciousness permeating them obviously remains unblemished before creation or after dissolution of the world; even during the existence of the world, it remains unaffected as the mirror by the images.

Though unperturbed, unblemished, thick, dense and single, the absolute consciousness being self-sufficient manifests within itself what looks 'exterior', just like a mirror reflecting space as external to itself. This is the first step in creation; it is called ignorance or darkness. Starting as an infinitesimal fraction of the whole, it manifests as though external to its origin, and is a property of the ego-sense. The alienation is on account of the latent tendencies to be manifested later. Because of its non-identity with the original consciousness, it is now simple, insentient energy.

[Note: The commentary has it: What is absolute consciousness goes under the name of Maya just before creation, and is later called Avidya (or ignorance) with the manifestation of the ego. The agitation in the quietness is due to subtle time fructifying the latent tendencies of the ego, which had not merged in the primordial state at the time of the dissolution of the universe.]