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16. The unreal has no existence and the real never ceases to be; the reality of both has thus been perceived by the seers of the truth.
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What is reality? Is it the apparent reality, visible and perceptible by the ordinary senses or the reality one comes across in dreams or in some reverie? Or is there any reality beyond these, which is not visible and perceptible but truly and definitely existing and beyond our comprehension? The subject of reality is a subject of intense speculation in the Vedanta. It is rightly said that one cannot understand the true nature of God and divine existence unless one realizes the reality and unreality of ones own present existence. It is therefore expected that one develops a right perspective before one jumps into the sea of spiritual adventure.
What is visible and sensible need not always be true and real. The mind and the senses can play tricks, as in the case when you see a rope and mistake it for a snake. The senses present the sun and the stars as small shining objects revolving around the earth where as in reality they are not. A person may appear very friendly and honest but if you dig deeper into his personality you may realize that he may not be all that friendly and honest. The senses are certainly not the true messenger of God. They are weak reflectors of light and truth, faltering, falsifying, exaggerating, distorting and misrepresenting the truth in their own weak and ignorant manner. They darken rather than illumine the truth. They are the instruments of ignorance and
illusion meant to perpetuate an aspect of reality that is actually not real at all. They are not expected to bring one closer to God and the ultimate reality, but actually far and far away from it.
The Reality which is described in our spiritual texts is totally different from what we understand as reality in our day to day lives. It is the ultimate reality, the ever-lasting reality that exists beyond all known and relative realities of the ordinary human mind and its faculties. According to our scriptures in order to be considered as real, a thing has to possess some fundamental qualifications: it must be permanent, fixed or unchanging, unborn, without a beginning and an end, immutable, indivisible and undivided. Any thing that does not possess these qualities is not real. If we look at our world and the things there in we realize that there is actually nothing here, including the very existence of any individual, which fits into this
definition. It is therefore logical from this standpoint to consider the world around as unreal and illusory.
This perspective and understanding are essential because the true exploration, the soul searching, begins only when we realize that the what we have and what we truly believe as real is actually not real but very unreal. We become puzzled and curious and start looking for the reality in our surroundings, and ourselves that is permanent, unchanging immutable and indivisible. We start asking whether we are ourselves real, because we are not permanent, not indivisible, not immutable. And then we begin to look for a life that take us nearer to such a reality. We become conscious of the need for a radical change in our approach and attitude to our daily existence and move in the direction of the "seers of the truth."
Commentary by Jayaram V
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