Cause of World Appearance: No Enquiry

Sage Vasishtha

Even as there is no relationship between light and darkness, there can be no relationship between the body and the embodied. When the truth is known, the erroneous perception vanishes. The self is consciousness - pure eternal, self-luminous and free from change; the body is impermanent and impure. How can there exist a relation between the two? The body is enlivened by the life-force or by the other elements; this body can have no relationship whatsoever with the self. Thus, even if the two (self and body) are regarded as two distinct realities, there can be no relationship between them: but, if this duality is unreal, then such thinking itself becomes irrelevant. Let this truth be firmly established in you; there is no bondage nor liberation at any time for anyone anywhere.

It is clear that all this is but the one infinite self or consciousness. If you lend ear to concepts like 'I am happy or unhappy' or 'I am ignorant', then they will bring you endless sorrow. The body came into being because of wind (life-breath), it exists because of it, its speech is caused by it and all the senses function because of it: the intelligence in it is but the indivisible consciousness. That infinite consciousness alone is spread out everywhere as space etc. and the latter are reflected in the consciousness, and this reflection has come to be known as the mind. When the mind abandons its body-cage and flies away, it experiences the self which is consciousness. Where there is fragrance there is flower; where there is mind there is consciousness. But, the mind alone is the cause for the appearance of the world: since the consciousness is omnipresent and infinite, though it is the ultimate cause, it is not the cause of the world-appearance. Hence, truly, the cause for this world-appearance is non-investigation into the nature of reality - ignorance. Even as a lamp instantly removes darkness, the light of self-knowledge dispels the darkness of ignorance instantly. Hence one should enquire into what is known as jiva or mind or the inner psychological factor.