Shloka 26
The Prayers of the Personified Vedas (Śruti-stuti) and the Indescribable Absolute
सदिव मनस्त्रिवृत्त्वयि विभात्यसदामनुजात् सदभिमृशन्त्यशेषमिदमात्मतयात्मविद: । न हि विकृतिं त्यजन्ति कनकस्य तदात्मतया स्वकृतमनुप्रविष्टमिदमात्मतयावसितम् ॥ २६ ॥
sad iva manas tri-vṛt tvayi vibhāty asad ā-manujāt sad abhimṛśanty aśeṣam idam ātmatayātma-vidaḥ na hi vikṛtiṁ tyajanti kanakasya tad-ātmatayā sva-kṛtam anupraviṣṭam idam ātmatayāvasitam
The three modes of material nature comprise everything in this world — from the simplest phenomena to the complex human body. Although these phenomena appear real, they are only a false reflection of the spiritual reality, being a superimposition of the mind upon You. Still, those who know the Supreme Self consider the entire material creation to be real inasmuch as it is nondifferent from the Self. Just as things made of gold are indeed not to be rejected, since their substance is actual gold, so this world is undoubtedly nondifferent from the Lord who created it and then entered within it.
In one sense the visible world is real ( sat ), while in another it is not ( asat ). The substance of this universe is solid fact, being the Lord’s external energy, but the forms that Māyā imposes on this substance are only temporary. And because material forms are temporary manifestations, those who consider them permanent are in illusion. Impersonalistic scholars, however, misinterpret this division of sat and asat ; denying commonsense reality, they declare that not only material form but also material substance is unreal, and they confuse their own spiritual essence with that of the Absolute Whole. A Māyāvādī philosopher would take the words spoken by the personified Vedas in the preceding prayer — tri-guṇa-mayaḥ pumān iti bhidā — as negating any distinction between the Paramātmā and the jīva soul. He would claim that since the jīva’s material embodiment is an ephemeral display of the three modes of nature, when the jīva’s ignorance is destroyed by knowledge, he becomes the Paramātmā, the Supreme Soul; bondage, liberation and the manifest world are all unreal creations of ignorance. In response to such ideas, the Vedas here clarify the factual relationship between sat and asat.
FAQs
This verse says the mind only seems real because it arises from the Supreme, but in itself it is unreal; Self-realized persons ‘touching the Truth’ see reality as the Lord’s Self.
To show that changes of form do not change the underlying reality—just as ornaments are only gold, the changing world is ultimately the Lord, who both creates it and enters it.
Treat mental fluctuations and changing circumstances as temporary forms, and practice remembering the underlying presence of the Lord (through japa, śravaṇa, and steady devotion) as the stable reality.