Till now, we saw a few illusions. But how many are actually there ? There are hundreds of such illusions found till now, and sill new ones are invented every year. So from this, one can easily conclude that what we see is all construction of our brain. Shapes of objects, their sizes, colors, contrast, motion everything is merely a kind of representation of information coming from outside... the information that enables us to deal with our surrounding, our environment. So, what we see is actually not the reality. Lets understand this. When we say that 'I see a red object', do you think that there is something red existing there in reality ? No. Actually, when we see that object, waves of particular frequency (430-480 THz for red color) hit our retina. The energy level of these waves get registered at retinal cells. Then retinal cells pass some electric impulses towards brain. Brain processes these impulses and constructs a unique representation of that information in mind. This representation is what we perceive as 'red color' in our mind. There is nothing called 'red' out there ! Similarly, when we see parallel lines or a spherical ball, there is no shape like 'parallel' or 'sphere' out there. These shapes are representations generated from the incoming sensory information, by applying certain rules according to brain's convenience.
Like vision, scientists have studied other sensory modalities also. And many illusions have been found to be existing in all modalities. For example, you can find many auditory illusions on this page - http://www.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~ynhome/ENG/Demo/illusions.html Similarly, illusions also exist for smell, touch and taste. And it has been found that all our perceptions, may they be of type vision, audio, taste, touch or smell, all of them are outcomes of processing of incoming information by our brain. They all are constructions. So, important point to understand is, the actual world out there is attribute-less. It's only our cognition which imparts certain attributes (like color, sound, shape, taste etc) to it. And this is the central teaching of spirituality. Spirituality tells us that actual reality is निर्गुण (free from any attributes), निराकार (without any shape), अनादी अनंत (without concept of time). Then, how the world we experience comes into existence ? Shankaracharya has told that the world is created by process of अध्यास (superimposition). This process consists of two subprocesses - आवरण शक्ति (filtering or veiling) and विक्षेप शक्ति (distortion or projection). And surprisingly, the process of constructing our perceptions also happens in same two steps. First external senses like nose, ear, eyes detect particular information and they filter out most of the unwanted information. For example eyes detect light in particular frequency range only, ears listen sounds in limited frequency range only etc. After this, the filtered information is processed (distorted) by internal cognitive organs (like primary and secondary visual cortex, auditory cortex), and finally projected as our perceptions. So, it is the same process which Shankaracharya referred to, centuries ago as आवरण and विक्षेप ! And science has reinvented the wheel. We know that our brain is behind this all creation. However, we can see, our brain ,touch it, smell it like any other object. It has a shape, a color. Thus all our sensory organs and our brain is actually a constructed representation of आवरण शक्ति and विक्षेप शक्ति. It is very restricted representation because it comes through process of filtering. And hence we can not perceive whole of it. So, the words 'आवरण शक्ति' and 'विक्षेप शक्ति' only represent the causal principle behind our perceptions, better than words like eyes, ear and brain.
Shankaracharya refers to this world as माया, because it is an illusion constructed by आवरण and विक्षेप शक्ति. However this world is 'मायावी' in other sense also. It is full of several irrational things, but we still accept them. For example, all things in life are changing and uncertain, except, death is the only certainty in life. But still we live every second of life as if we will never die!.... We never know what will we do or what will we think at the next moment in time. But, we believe that it's us who decide that!.... When we go out for shopping, we never know in which shop will we end up in. But we always undoubtedly believe that we have a free will!.... When someone falls down by slipping his leg, it hurts him, but it makes a humorous situation for us and we laugh instead of feeling bad about it!.... It's well known that tobacco causes cancer and alcohol causes liver damage. But still people go on smoking and drinking continuously!.... The emotions like love,certain fears,jealousy are also irrational. But we do accept them as reality and go ahead..... We believe that what is perceived as a shared experience of many people is truth. For example if I see a red ball and others also see that red ball then we accept it as reality. But there are many contradicting things to this rule. Rising and setting of sun, flatness of earth are some of the things which are shared experiences, but today we know that they are not realities. So just many people witnessing same thing is not test for reality. But despite of this we still continue to accept it as a 'test for reality'! Thus,there are so many crazy things in this world which are beyond rationality and our understanding. That's why I call this world 'मायावी'.
So, if we think deep enough, it reveals us that the world is really not how we perceive it as. And we can not depend on our senses, our cognition and our intelligence for studying the ultimate reality. Because our senses do not tell us information, in fact they hide the information. And that's why spiritual practices are always focused on stoicism (वैराग्य). Spirituality teaches to become indifferent to information coming from our senses and their effects, because it is useless. Once one learns that trick, then only he can perceive absolute, attribute-less, infinite truth - ब्रह्म. And the learning process is known as 'साधना'.
"ये त्व अक्षरम अनिर्देस्यम
अव्यक्तं पर्युपासते
सर्वत्र-गम असिन्त्यम का
कुता-स्थं अकालम ध्रुवं।
संनियाम्येंद्रिया-ग्रामं
सर्वत्र समां-बुद्धयः
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मम एव
सर्व-भूत-हिते रतः।"
Those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth — by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me. -- भगवद गीता-12.3-4
Like vision, scientists have studied other sensory modalities also. And many illusions have been found to be existing in all modalities. For example, you can find many auditory illusions on this page - http://www.design.kyushu-u.ac.jp/~ynhome/ENG/Demo/illusions.html Similarly, illusions also exist for smell, touch and taste. And it has been found that all our perceptions, may they be of type vision, audio, taste, touch or smell, all of them are outcomes of processing of incoming information by our brain. They all are constructions. So, important point to understand is, the actual world out there is attribute-less. It's only our cognition which imparts certain attributes (like color, sound, shape, taste etc) to it. And this is the central teaching of spirituality. Spirituality tells us that actual reality is निर्गुण (free from any attributes), निराकार (without any shape), अनादी अनंत (without concept of time). Then, how the world we experience comes into existence ? Shankaracharya has told that the world is created by process of अध्यास (superimposition). This process consists of two subprocesses - आवरण शक्ति (filtering or veiling) and विक्षेप शक्ति (distortion or projection). And surprisingly, the process of constructing our perceptions also happens in same two steps. First external senses like nose, ear, eyes detect particular information and they filter out most of the unwanted information. For example eyes detect light in particular frequency range only, ears listen sounds in limited frequency range only etc. After this, the filtered information is processed (distorted) by internal cognitive organs (like primary and secondary visual cortex, auditory cortex), and finally projected as our perceptions. So, it is the same process which Shankaracharya referred to, centuries ago as आवरण and विक्षेप ! And science has reinvented the wheel. We know that our brain is behind this all creation. However, we can see, our brain ,touch it, smell it like any other object. It has a shape, a color. Thus all our sensory organs and our brain is actually a constructed representation of आवरण शक्ति and विक्षेप शक्ति. It is very restricted representation because it comes through process of filtering. And hence we can not perceive whole of it. So, the words 'आवरण शक्ति' and 'विक्षेप शक्ति' only represent the causal principle behind our perceptions, better than words like eyes, ear and brain.
Shankaracharya refers to this world as माया, because it is an illusion constructed by आवरण and विक्षेप शक्ति. However this world is 'मायावी' in other sense also. It is full of several irrational things, but we still accept them. For example, all things in life are changing and uncertain, except, death is the only certainty in life. But still we live every second of life as if we will never die!.... We never know what will we do or what will we think at the next moment in time. But, we believe that it's us who decide that!.... When we go out for shopping, we never know in which shop will we end up in. But we always undoubtedly believe that we have a free will!.... When someone falls down by slipping his leg, it hurts him, but it makes a humorous situation for us and we laugh instead of feeling bad about it!.... It's well known that tobacco causes cancer and alcohol causes liver damage. But still people go on smoking and drinking continuously!.... The emotions like love,certain fears,jealousy are also irrational. But we do accept them as reality and go ahead..... We believe that what is perceived as a shared experience of many people is truth. For example if I see a red ball and others also see that red ball then we accept it as reality. But there are many contradicting things to this rule. Rising and setting of sun, flatness of earth are some of the things which are shared experiences, but today we know that they are not realities. So just many people witnessing same thing is not test for reality. But despite of this we still continue to accept it as a 'test for reality'! Thus,there are so many crazy things in this world which are beyond rationality and our understanding. That's why I call this world 'मायावी'.
So, if we think deep enough, it reveals us that the world is really not how we perceive it as. And we can not depend on our senses, our cognition and our intelligence for studying the ultimate reality. Because our senses do not tell us information, in fact they hide the information. And that's why spiritual practices are always focused on stoicism (वैराग्य). Spirituality teaches to become indifferent to information coming from our senses and their effects, because it is useless. Once one learns that trick, then only he can perceive absolute, attribute-less, infinite truth - ब्रह्म. And the learning process is known as 'साधना'.
"ये त्व अक्षरम अनिर्देस्यम
अव्यक्तं पर्युपासते
सर्वत्र-गम असिन्त्यम का
कुता-स्थं अकालम ध्रुवं।
संनियाम्येंद्रिया-ग्रामं
सर्वत्र समां-बुद्धयः
ते प्राप्नुवन्ति मम एव
सर्व-भूत-हिते रतः।"
Those who fully worship the unmanifested, that which lies beyond the perception of the senses, the all-pervading, inconceivable, unchanging, fixed and immovable—the impersonal conception of the Absolute Truth — by controlling the various senses and being equally disposed to everyone, such persons, engaged in the welfare of all, at last achieve Me. -- भगवद गीता-12.3-4
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