Kevin: I have been contemplating the Chokehold of Maya and The Missing G in Fandom. Thank you again.
Sundari: You are most welcome. I love your writing, it’s so rich and evocative.
Kevin: Since our last exchange the Jiva / Doer are wobbling, like something which was so solid is moving, like a mirage in the desert the “closer” the self gets although it is not separate. Fragmenting or at least getting not so solid. Previously taken as not just “me”, the ego, a hard rock – but also around it a shroud of “unquestionable, undebatable” – as if one should not inquire into it, ever. It seems to have its own protection but this appears limited now.
Sundari: Beautifully described, great insights, though of course, the Self cannot get ‘closer’ because it is who you are. As you say, once it becomes evident that there is no separation, the Self seems to appear through the layers of the defended mind. But it is always there, the witness of the diminishing duality covering it. The house of fear the ego builds to protect itself from Maya is indeed the hardest part of the psyche, yet it is no more substantial than air. We all have the D-factor, until Self-knowledge completely dissolves it.
Isn’t it interesting though that ego-objectivity can express so eloquently even when it is the ego looking at the ego crumbling. Self-knowledge is starting to take over and alter perception – removing ignorance – one subtle layer after another. Soon there will be no place to hide for the poor ego. It will be divested of all its garments and routed out, flushed from the clutches of Maya. Expect a battle!
Kevin: A kind of internal “heresy” is taking place. Duryodhana, so indomitable, which psychologically one could project mistakenly onto one’s parents is now like that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the oh so terrifying Wizard is being exposed by the little dog behind the curtain and Duryodhana vainly protests “don’t look behind the curtain!”. Once exposed, it cannot be un-exposed again. Once seen, the exposure is permanent, it is knowledge.
Sundari: Yes, exactly. A heresy is how the ego sees the onslaught of nonduality on its theatre kingdom of hell. Outrageous! The D-factor imbues everything in our cognitive neural network with the large brushstrokes of righteous blame and condemnation when it is not drowning in shame and guilt. What a play of the damned mithya is. We can thank our lucky stars that the scary Wizard of OZ in the form of the scripture rips open that flimsy little curtain of tamasic/rajasic denial and projection. And how very tiny is that ridiculous homunculus behind the curtain! How could such a pathetic idea have such power over us? I wrote a poem about this, about ten years ago.
Kevin: With the scripture and your dedication it is truly possible to discriminate – in the most positive way (although this word is deemed negative in the 21st century in a wrong context). It is no longer “my special Jiva” only – but all Jivas everywhere, are principally the same and suffering under the same apparent ignorance. One collection of Duryodhana(s) all under the same ignorance.
Sundar: Yes. But it takes your dedication to applying the teachings. Giving up specialness is tough for the ego. Maya the great magician waves its wand and creates the illusion of multiplicity. But it is a mirage. Duality is simply a superimposition onto nonduality. Have you ever seen an Escher painting, the weird spatial and optical effects he creates superimposing images by imbedding them within other images? Once you can see the embedded image, you cannot not see it again. Duality is like that. When you know what it is you can enjoy it for what it has to offer – temporary bliss. The wheel of samsara can no longer suck you into its whirlpool of object desire.
Kevin: I believe Duryodhana did not want the knowledge, which makes that part of the Gita as I understand it so tragic but an inevitable possibility. The call to Arjuna is felt with a full heart of urgency and bliss. It’s nagging in a good way more every day, a need to make sure I make some kind of devotion on waking and sleeping at least.
Sundari: In one way, yes, Maya is tragic. But without duality there would be no field of existence for the jiva to work out its karma, as unreal as it is. In the dream of Maya, Duryodhana is necessary because mithya contains all opposites. It’s the only way the ‘show can go on’. Duryodhana represents Maya, tamoguna, beginningless ignorance. But as Maya is a power in Awareness, it too is the Self. Though the Self is free of Maya because Maya is not real, meaning, not always present and always changing.
Ignorance is the absence of knowledge, but is a kind of knowledge also because it is a vritti, a thought. You cannot have ignorance without knowledge because ignorance means ignorance OF something and implies a knower. There are three types of ignorance: 1) There are things you think you know and think are true; 2) there are the things you know you don’t know and 3) there are things you don’t know you don’t know. This is where suffering comes in: confusing ignorance with knowledge, not knowing what is true and being ignorant of being ignorant. Self-knowledge is the only thing that can remove ignorance of our true nature.
Under the spell of Maya, life is a mad hatter Alice in Wonderland world where everyone is peering through the looking glass trying to figure out what’s what. Nobody knows what the hell is going on. It’s a nuthouse. What cannot be seen without the rectifying spectacles of the nondual scripture is that though the field of existence is intelligently designed and seems conscious, it owes its sentiency to Consciousness – you.
It’s only the myopia of mithya that makes things look crazy. Once personal ignorance (avidya) is removed, both knowledge and ignorance are objects known to you. The reversal of Maya/duality is reversed. You have nondual specs and are no longer ignorant of your true nature. Therefore you no longer need knowledge because you know you are the Self. The distortion in the mirror is over, for you.
This does not mean that as a jiva you ‘become’ all knowing. It means you understand the ESSENCE of everything to be you, Consciousness. The jiva, enlightened or not, lives in the apparent reality which is a lawful universe run by forces not in the control of anyone. It only has knowledge of objects it has contact with. Only Isvara is all knowing and all powerful in and as the intelligence behind the Field of Existence.
But though Isvara is the creator of the field and its effects, it never enters the creation because it is the Self. If it did, freedom from the hypnosis of duality would be impossible. Mithya would be real and we would forever be stuck in the looking glass. Like milk becoming cheese can never be milk again. It’s status has changed forever.
So moksa, freedom from the distorting looking glass of Maya, involves a status change for the ego. It can no longer hide behind the curtain of duality when it has been exposed to be merely a conceptual entity. The game is up. Though you were never not the Self, and status does not apply to you, the status makeover of the ego means that troublemaker is now an obedient little dog sitting at your heels, metaphorically speaking.
Kevin: I have looked for the complete prayer you both say at the beginning of each Satsang but after trying to phonetically enter your words into Google can only find the last stanza “sarvavedanta siddhanta gocharam tamagocharam govindam paramanandam sadgurum pranatosmyaham“.
Could you help me with the complete prayer, perhaps with translation? Finally, some ~14 years I believe after having met James the first time, I would like to actually learn it properly!
Sundari: I sent it to you, did you receive it?
Much love,
Sundari
