Mithyatva

हरि ॐ ||

I intend to express a somewhat detailed learning in a later blog entry, if mood sticks on, which would likely talk of the Mandukya Karika as placed against Buddhist philosophy. However, here's a quick note from a reference in Gaudapadacharya's Mandukya Karika, which appears to me as a very good expression of mithyatva (delusion) of the world.

When an incense stick is burnt and moved about rapidly in various patterns, those patterns appear to be existing. Say when moved in a circle, a red ring of fire is seen. Now, this particular red circle has no existence of its own, but it does appear to be existing. It is not different from the incense stick itself because the incense stick is the material as well as the efficient cause for the red circle, but yet it is different because the incense stick is not a red circle. The circle appears due to the power of movement of the incense stick that projects a circle, which is only of apparent reality based on the incense stick as a substratum. So too, brahman is the material and efficient cause for the world to appear, but brahman is not the way the world appears. The world appears due to Maya, the power of the real substratum of brahman, that makes brahman appear as the world. The world is therefore mithyarupi; in reality, brahman is without a second: ekameva advaitya brahma.

ॐ तत् सत् ||