What is viewed ?...

"A question arose if the world is real or unreal,
since it is claimed to be both by the _advaitins_
themselves. Sri Bhagavan said that it is unreal if
viewed as apart from the Self and real if viewed as
the Self."

_Talks With Sriramana Maharshi_: Threee Volumes in
One_
Tiruvannamalai: Sri Ramana Ashram, 7th ed. 1984
(1955), p. 499

[According to Advaita Vedanta, of which Sri Ramana was
an exponent, the Self [Atman] is Reality [Brahman].
The phenomenal worlds -- gross, subtle and causal --
appear to exist separate from the Self through the
Self's Power [Maya]: The power of the Self is the
ability of the Self to know itself.

In the Self's
knowing itself as infinite, knowledge and existence
are identical, and the power of the Self is known to
be one with its nature. The Self is known as an
indivisible unity"within" which there is a flow of
knowledge. This flow of knowledge is Veda -- complete
knowledge. Veda has three aspects, _rishi_ or knower,
devata or knowing, and cchandas or known, which are
indivisibly one in pure knowledge.

If the Self is infinite, it must include the finite.
In the Self's knowing itself as finite, knowledge
(subject) and existence (object) appear to be
different, even though they are not actually so, and
the power of the Self that generates this illusion of
separateness where there is none remains a mystery.

The knower appears as the limited self, which takes
itself to be mind/body. The known appears as the world
of objects, and the process of knowing is the spectrum
of mental activity characteristic of finite mind.
Horizontally this spectrum includes feeling, thought,
imagination, memory and so forth.

Vertically, so to
speak, the spectrum of finite knowledge is gross,
subtle and mental, and limited mind projects the
gross, subtle and causal worlds, depending one whether
one's state of awareness is gross, subtle or mental.
This state is determined by the predominating quality
of one's latent impressions or _sanskaras_.

The
spiritual path is the progression of awareness
through the gross, subtle and mental toward
realization.

Liberation is the removal of this
ignorance through realization of the true nature of
the Self as the only reality.

This occurs when the
latent impressions are resolved by the final stroke of
knowledge imparted by the grace of the Master, who has
realized the Self and can thus remove the veil of
ignorance of others at will.

Then separateness is
discovered to be illusion in the realization of
Reality as eternally unitary and indivisible...

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Live Unity, Celebrate Diversity