That is the Atma, which is mistaken as I, through ignorance. As long as this truth is not won, man cannot release himself from the hold of multiplicity and change. The scriptures communicate to us this Reality and exhort us to realise it. What is it that, if known, everything else can be known? When the Atma is known, declare the scriptures (Sruthi), everything can be known. The Jagath (the Cosmos) is only relatively real; it is partly false. Knowing it is unprofitable and unnecessary. It is not a legitimate purpose of Life. Life is best spent and human effort best directed when awareness of the Atma principle is sought to be attained. The Sruthi warns man against other vain pursuits. The Sruthi texts and allied sacred literature like Smrithis, Ithihasas and Puranas do not teach us anywhere how the Cosmos was created or advise us to study and understand the origins and the process. They do not declare the absence of that knowledge as calamitous; they even assert that the task is impossible.

"Why worry how the Cosmos was born or when it will die? Worry rather about yourself." That is the lesson emphasised by the scriptures. "Know Thyself." Once you know yourself, everything else will be automatically clear. You are a Pindanda in the Brahmanda, a microcosm in the macrocosm. Just as the knowledge of one single clay pot is enough to know all about all clay pots, when you know your self, all else can be known.

In order to persuade a child to stop weeping and regain joy, the Ayah relates a fairy tale which pleases it. The Ayah's sole purpose is to calm the child; the fairy tale is only a means modelled on its intellectual level. In the same manner, the Jivi, fascinated by the beginningless attraction of maya and bound by tendencies cultivated during many lives in the past, cannot avoid inquiring into the origins of the Universe which he encounters. The Sruthi answers such inquiry in words that give temporary relief. For, the question, how was the Universe created, is on a par with the question, how is a dream created? The dream originates from sleep or Nidra; the Universe originates through illusion or Maya. Just as the dream has no order or law, the Universe also is too full of mystery and Maya. There is only One, not two as often happens in a dream. This is the doctrine of Adwaitha. Very much like the question of the origin of creation, another problem that generally worries man is, how did this ignorance happen? The solution has been provided by the sage-preceptor, Vasishta, to Sri Ramachandra. "Rama!" he said, "Rather than entangling yourselves in the inquiry regarding how Ignorance entered Man, I would exhort you to be engaged in efforts to get rid of it". This lesson is directed not only to Rama but to all mankind. It helps all who do not possess the realisation of the Truth behind the objective world. Ajnana or Ignorance is the name given to ignoring what is one's own inner experience - that the universe is an ever-changing phenomenon.

Why then are we troubled by this question? Be convinced that you have this ignorance, give up the struggle to get rid of attachment to this changing world with its concomitant birth-death cycle. It is only another evidence of this ignorance to argue whether this A-jnana adheres to Brahmam or emanates from the Jivi. Surely it is much more essential to concentrate on the methods by which the Ignorance can be discarded. For it will certainly yield to wisdom or Jnana. Jnana is Light; Ignorance is darkness. Darkness can persist only until Light shines.