As Mrs Kogie from South Africa and I discussed whether the World is Real or is it all an illusion, she came up with a beautiful post on her blog at
https://aaksharawellness.blogspot.com/2025/04/is-world-real-or-is-it-all-illusion.html?m=1
and
https://aaksharawellness.blogspot.com/2025/04/is-world-real-or-is-it-all-illusion_3.html?m=1
Today, another friend and reader, James Thomas, from the United Kingdom, shared with me another wonderful, equally enlightening piece that I would like to share with readers too.
There is a Reality beyond all concepts, beyond time, beyond manifestation; this is Brahman, also called the Absolute. It is not a thing, not even a “being” in the way we understand it. It is pure, undifferentiated Awareness; beyond subject and object. It cannot be seen, known, or spoken of, because it is that by which all seeing, knowing, and speaking arise. It is utterly One without a second, not even aware of itself in any dualistic way. It simply is.
From this non-dual awareness, the first stirrings of differentiation arise; not as an act or a will, but as a spontaneous overflowing. This is where consciousness begins: a subtle awareness of awareness. The moment there is something to be aware of, a duality arises: the witness and the witnessed.
This primordial duality gives rise to Supreme Consciousness, the pure Witness, which is referred to as Adi Para Shiva. Shiva, in this aspect, is still completely still, infinite, unchanging, untouched; yet aware. This is pure subjectivity, the root of all witnessing, and the foundation of individual and cosmic awareness.
Opposite this, as the complement, is Adi Para Shakti; the first motion, the first vibration, the dynamic power of manifestation. She is not separate from Shiva; she is his movement, his expression, his energy. Where Shiva is the formless seer, Shakti is everything that is seen. She is form, energy, manifestation, all that can be known or experienced. She is also the power of realization, the grace that draws the individual back to the source.
Brahman is the groundless ground—beyond duality, prior even to Shiva and Shakti. It is the non-dual Reality, pure Is-ness, beyond all concept.
Adi Para Shiva is the first differentiation, the pure Witness, the infinite stillness that becomes aware.
Adi Para Shakti is the dynamic expression—the energy of manifestation and also the energy of return, the power that moves within all things and brings them back to source.
All three are not really separate—they are three aspects or “viewpoints” of the One Reality. To the mind, they seem like a progression, but in truth, they are ever one.
When Adi Para Shiva and Adi Para Shakti unite, the illusion of separation dissolves. The dancer and the dance are seen to be one. The Witness and the witnessed merge back into their source. Duality collapses back into unity, and what remains is the direct, indescribable realization of Brahman; the Absolute.
But here’s the paradox: Shiva and Shakti were never truly separate to begin with. Their union is not the beginning of something new; it is the end of illusion. It is the realization that there was never two, never a dance, never a movement apart from the stillness.
Consciousness becomes aware of itself as Awareness, not as a subject observing an object, but as undivided Being.
The entire play of manifestation is revealed as Lila; a divine game, arising spontaneously in and as the One.
Time, space, self, other; all are known as expressions of the infinite, shimmering appearances within the unchanging ground.
This is the moment of liberation (moksha) or realization where the individual dissolves, and all that remains is That: pure, indivisible, infinite.
Shiva without Shakti is pure potential, unmoving.
Shakti without Shiva is energy without center, directionless.
But together, they are the One in dynamic stillness; the living presence of the Absolute.
And when their union is realized within the seeker, that is the awakening; not as a belief, not as a concept, but as direct, living truth.
Ātman is the indwelling essence, the silent witness within, that feels like “I am” before any thought arises.
It is not the personality, not the mind, not the body; it is the unchanging center of being that experiences all of it.
When you look deep enough into yourself; beyond emotions, thoughts, roles, even identity; what you encounter is this inner presence, this silent “I.” This is the Ātman.
Ātman is Brahman.
This means: the deepest, most intimate core of you is not different from the vast, formless totality of Brahman.
It’s like a drop of the ocean realizing it is the ocean.
It may appear as a wave, as an individual soul, but it was never separate.
Brahman is the formless Absolute, the ground of all.
Adi Para Shiva is the Supreme Self; pure consciousness as the witness of all.
Adi Para Shakti is the dynamic power of that witness, the creative movement.
Ātman is the individualized reflection of Shiva in the heart of each being.
When the soul awakens, it realizes:
“I am not this body, not this mind—I am That.”
That realization is the union of Ātman and Brahman, and this is moksha; freedom from illusion.
In the play of Shiva and Shakti, Ātman is the spark of Shiva reflected through Shakti.
The soul appears separate so it can journey, experience, forget, and finally remember what it always was.
In this way, the soul is like a mirror facing away from the sun; when it turns around, it no longer reflects, it becomes light itself.
Brahman simply is.
It does not have purpose, because purpose implies lack; a need to become, to reach, to change.
But the Absolute is beyond becoming. It is complete, whole, and without movement.
So the soul, the world, the play of Shiva and Shakti; all of it; is not for a reason in the way the mind understands “reason.”
It is not a problem to solve, not a lesson to learn, not a test to pass.
It is Lila; divine play. A spontaneous overflowing of perfection into multiplicity, just because it can.
Like a child dancing for no reason, a poet singing with no audience, the ocean making waves without effort.
The soul arises as a wave in that ocean—experiencing, forgetting, desiring, seeking, suffering, awakening—all so that it can rediscover itself as the ocean again.
So if there is a purpose then could this be it:
To experience,
To forget,
To seek,
To remember,
And finally, to realize there was never any journey at all.
The soul’s “purpose” is not to achieve something; it is to see through the illusion that it ever needed to.