Brahman vs. Maya vs. The World | Why Language Fails & Metaphors Mislead (Advaita Vedanta)

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]you were discussing at length the um >> the distinguishing between Brin and the work >> and the word. Yes.

[00:00:07]>> How in what category of of things then do you distinguish between uh the world or the universe and maya?

[00:00:17]>> The world or the universe is a product of maya. It is pervaded by maya. It is maya itself.

[00:00:25]No, you see what they're claiming here is you say if I ask you what are you experiencing? You'll say the world and the vanta says no not just the world you are experiencing the world covering Brahman. The world veiling Brahman you are experiencing world plus Brahman right now. If you say that then you if if we say that your question next question will be if I'm experiencing Brahman plus world then what in my experience is the world and what in my experience is Brahman and the answer they gave was the name and forms which you experience are the world and that is Maya and the existence consciousness bliss is Brahman the name this is in world and maya right now >> are the same maya is the cause the name and form which uh gives us the world. But remember when they when we say we when we say I am experiencing the world, I am experiencing world plus Brahman or Brahman plus word. Brahman covered over by the world. Yes.

[00:01:31]>> I'm I'm having a hard time with the two metaphors and medium attaching too much to them. The snake and the rope, the mirage in the desert. Yes.

[00:01:39]>> Yet that is very vivid. Mhm.

[00:01:41]>> And then but when we use the table and the wood that seems like both are much more real tape. I mean if you don't it bits a table as much as it was a tree.

[00:01:52]>> Yes. All right. It's a very good question and I'll just dwell on it for a little while and then stop here but if you want you can take it up next class also. It's important to note this in Vanta because language breaks down at the point of expressing the absolute.

[00:02:08]The language language is never meant to express the absolute. Language is meant to deal with the relative world. So because language breaks down, we are forced to rely on several strategies.

[00:02:18]One of them is using examples, metaphors.

[00:02:21]Now when using examples, examples can be very useful to teach something but they can be very dangerous also because the teacher when he is using the example knows what he means. But the student may not. Student may not if you say that man is like a lion. You mean the man is as brave as a lion or as fierce as a lion or whatever. If you but the student may understand that the ma man sort of goes around on all fours and jumps on unwary people then may understand that it doesn't know what you mean. In the same way I just answer that very briefly and end it here. When you say when when Vanta says the snake and the rope, rope is like Brahman, snake is like the world. Now in the case of snake and the rope, the moment you see the rope, the snake vanishes.

[00:03:16]This snake has no existence at all in the beginning, in the middle or in the end. It's the rope alone which exists.

[00:03:22]Nothing has happened to the rope to make it a snake. So all these things are understood from the example and correct.

[00:03:29]they apply to Brahman and the world. In the case of the table or in what they use the clay and pot or here the table and the wood. What confuses us is it seems that the table is as real as the wood and you make something make the shape the wood into a table. So is Brahman somehow shaped into this world? The answer is no. When you talk about table and wood, clay and pot, it took me a long time to understand this clay and pot. table and wood only one thing and one thing alone is being ma um is being intended here they are not saying that the clay has been shaped into a pot and so Brahman has been shaped into the world no they're not saying the table has been made into a table the wood has been made into a table by a carpenter so God has made the world out of something only one thing is meant here the entire existence of the table is wood here actually is wood if you If you examine it, the top is wood, the bottom is wood, the sides are wood, the weight of the table is the weight of the wood.

[00:04:34]Are they equally real? They are not equally real. Why? Because the wood can exist without the table. It can exist as a tree.

[00:04:43]It can exist as a broken table. It can exist as wood powder. It's the same wood. Just as water can exist without being a wave, but the wave cannot exist without water.

[00:04:56]Do you get it? The wave cannot exist without water. And so the wave is not real like the water. The or let me put it this way, the reality of the wave is the reality of the water.

[00:05:07]In the same way, the reality of this world is Brahman.

[00:05:14]We will leave it at this and then next take up the techniques, the six techniques for assimilating it to make it a real thing in our lives.

[00:05:23]Om shanty shant shanti hom that's Krishna