Day-27: Effects Are Temporary — Only the Cause Is Real

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Hari aum! All effects — however impressive they may appear — are nothing but modifications of the Cause alone. Forms change. Names change. Functions change. But the Cause remains unchanged. The effect has no independent existence. It only borrows reality from the Cause. Just as a pot is only clay with a form, and a wave is only water with a name, so too this world is only Brahman with appearance. Even our own life clearly reveals this truth: The childhood stage, the grown-up stage, and the old-age stage — are all effects only. They are conditions, not the Reality. They come and go. They change and dissolve. They transform continuously. So the inquiry must be: What is that permanent aspect that was always there? What is that which witnessed all three stages, yet itself did not change? And here we see the subtle role of the ego (ahaṅkāra): In every stage of life, the ego makes us feel that “What I think in this stage is the only correct way of seeing.” The child is certain. The adult is convinced. The old person is equally sure. Thus, the ego identifies with each temporary stage and mistakes the effect for the Self. Vedānta teaches us to shift our vision — from stage to substratum, from effect to Cause, from appearance to Reality, from the changing to the Changeless. This is true Vedānta-Chintana. From Avaraṇa (I don’t know the Truth), through Adhyāropa (I know wrongly), towards Advaita-jñāna (I know rightly). Hari aum Tat Sat 🙏🏾