The field and its knower (Prakriti and Purusha) are beginningless. The Upanishad says that the variety appearing in the one brahman is an effect of maayaa. Due to appearance (aabhaasa) alone does maayaa create distinction between the individual soul and Ishvara. That is why, even the duality of the field and its knower is a product of maayaa, not real. In the Gita, Bhagavaan has called his eight-fold Prakriti as inferior (aparaa) Prakriti, and the individual soul as the superior (paraa) Prakriti (Gita 7.4-5). By being a Prakriti of brahman, they have an inexplicable (anirvachaneeya) relationship with brahman. In Vedanta, maayaa is real-unreal-different (sadasadvilakshana) alone. Therefore, even its effect is unreal.
Six things are considered beginningless in Vedanta. The pure awareness (brahman), Ishvara, individual soul, the difference between Ishvara and the soul, ignorance, and the relationship between ignorance and awareness (chit). Even beginninglessness is of two types - real beginninglessness and imagined beginninglessness. Brahman is the absolute reality, it is real beginninglessness, and is also endless. Everything else is imagined beginninglessness, in other words, their beginninglessness is accepted but they are not endless, they have an end, since their illusory nature is understood after knowledge of brahman. If they sky is beginningless then even the blueness seen in the sky is beginningless. But the sky is real and the blueness is imagined. When accurate knowledge of the substratum of blueness (sky) happens, the blueness becomes falsified (baadhita).
In the beginningless pure brahman, Prakriti is imagined beginninglessness. Prakriti has a imagined beginninglessness identification relationship with brahman. In other words, they are not different. But for the sake of discrimination, a difference is accepted. Beginninglessness is not an indication of reality, of the truth. In other words, just by being beginningless, something does not become real. Counter to this, whatever is falsified due to knowledge of this substratum is illusory. Let's say you saw Lord Vishnu in a dream. Lord VIshnu appeared to be beginningless, ever real. After waking up, you realizes that it was a form which was created out of mental imperssions. Therefore, the vision and its Lord Vishnu were falsified.
Brahman is endless and self-illumined. The nature of a self-illumined entity is to see, and the nature of the endless is to not be completely visible. Therefore, when brahman sees itself, then due to not being able to see itself completely, there is an imagination of finitude in endlessness, and one begins to be seen as many.
In Vedanta, Prakriti is called "avyaakrita". "Maaya" is also another name for ayvaakrita. It is the with-seed state of brahman. In Saankhya, Prakriti is an inert reality which is with seed, with impressions. Depending upon the impressions, there is sprouting, transformation in it. But, that which is aware cannot be with seed. Awareness can only be the witness of with-seed and without-seed.
Awareness also cannot display variety, since if it does so, who will witness that variety? Therefore, there can be no modification in awareness nor transformation. Then accepting awareness as the root of the variety in the world can be possible only through "maaya". Maaya means magic. If you see a boy appear in a magic show, he neither needs parents nor the five elements to appear. This is because objects in a magic show are not created or transformed, they just appear to do so. In the language of Vedanta, this is called "Vivarta". Vivarta means seeing topsy-turvy, seeing brahman as the world. It is maayaa alone that causes the variety in brahman. This is the statement of the Brihadaranyaka.
The transformations of Prakriti are : five elements, senses, mind, objects of sense, ahankaara, mahat element, avyakta. And whatever comprises the cause-effect world - sattva, rajas, tamas - all these also arise from Prakriti.
Wordly entities such as the body etc., senses, internal organ and doership are said to be caused by Prakriti. The enjoyership of joy and sorrow is said to be caused by the Purusha (Gita 13.20).
Doership in the Purusha comes by the adjunct of the organs of action. Doership through the adjunct of the hand, and walkership through the adjunct of the legs! Knowing happens through the adjunct of the organs of sense. Knowledge of favourable and unfavourable happens through the adjunct of the mind. Knowledge of right and wrong happens through the adjunct of the intellect. Recollection comes through the adjunct of memory, "I"-ness comes through the adjunct of the ego. Arrogation or abhimaana of the waking state, disease, caste comes through the adjunct of the gross body. Arrogation of the dream state, anxiety, doership-enjoyership, wordliness comes through the adjunct of the subtle body. Arrogation of samaadhi, deep sleep state comes through the adjunct of the causal body. All these adjuncts are imagined in Prakriti.
Enjoyership is not the natural state of the Purusha, it is also caused by adjunct. "I am happy, I am sad" - this alone is the form of enjoyership. The identification of the "I" with joy or sorrow alone in this is enjoyership. But joy and sorrow belong to the field. That is why, one who knows joy or sorrow cannot become joyful or sorrowful.
If I am happy, then who is the witness of that happiness? If I am sad, who witnesses the sadness?
In reality, the unseparated (avivikta) awareness, that which has not been separated from the field, alone is the enjoyer. The pure awareness is not the enjoyer.
Joy resides in the self, while sorrow resides in the mind. Even when all the causes of joy in the world are available, we do not experience it. No matter how sad a person is, he experiences sorrow. Experience of sorrow does not happen without the mind, whereas experience of joy can happen without the mind, like in deep sleep. Therefore, joy comes from inside whereas we take on sorrow from the outside. The presence of the self alone is joy. These joys and sorrow belong to the enjoyer alone1
Until the Purusha is ignorant, his name is Purusha. When he knows that he is the witness, the knower of the field, then his name becomes brahman. The ignorance brahman alone is the Purusha.
In this manner, until Prakriti along with its substratum is not known, its name is Prakriti. When Prakriti is known along with its substratum, then its name becomes delight (prateeti) or maaya. Both Prakriti and Purusha are imagined in brahman in their ignorant state. The transformations, attributes, cause-effect nature in these are all imagined in ignorant state. In the state of knowledge, it is all my maayaa, it is only a mere delight in me.
In reality, there is no Prakriti, nor is it the cause in anything. It is spoken of for the sake of discrimination - it is superimposed. Until there is knowledge of our non-disconnectedness, Prakriti, Purusha, their duality, their qualities appear as real.
A square piece of iron is burned in fire. The fire begins to appear square and the iron begins to look like fire. Similarly, the disconnectedness of the body has been superimposed on the self, and the awareness of the self has been superimposed on the body. This mutual superimposition causes the Purusha to experience joy and sorrow. Purusha is not the enjoyer, he is the cause of enjoyership, this is said. Doership and enjoyership alone is the sign of the world (samsaara). Through knowledge, this world is disengaged. The elemental world remains as it is, just like the senses.
The nature of the field in essence is neither of doership nor enjoyership. This is the quality of its adjunct. Only this has to be known, the "kshetra" or field is illusory, and the "jnya" or knowledge is real. The illusory adjuncts of the illusory field cannot make me, the real knowledge-nature self, into a disconnected entity. Prakriti is inert, a seen, ever-changing. I am aware, the witness, non-changing brahman. Prakriti cannot bind me. And I am unattached, so I cannot get bound. Therefore I am ever pure, aware, free brahman, this should be the firm conviction.
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