The changing element of the world which the concept of mâyâ...

The changing element of the world which the concept of mâyâ implies is itself a permanent feature of the world. It is in the nature of the world to be changing, to undergo generation and corruption, to experience life and death. But the meaning of this change can only be understood in terms of the permanent. To have understood that the world is mâyâ is to have understood the meaning of Atmân or Brahmân that transcends mâyâ.

To know that the world is impermanent or samsâric in nature is to know by extension the presence of the nirvânic state beyond it.[^3] The changing character of the world reveals metaphysically the permanent reality that transcends it. To realize the relativity of things is to know, by extension of the same knowledge, about the Absolute and the Permanent. Throughout history, in all periods of human culture, this metaphysical distinction has existed.

It lies in the nature of things and so is there for all to see, provided they turn their vision towards it. Only, in certain periods such as ours the relative has come to be idolized as the Absolute. Today, one often hears the claim that all is relative. But the same people who make such a claim often bestow an absolute character on the domain of the relative itself.

Without always being fully aware of it they have mistaken both Brahmân and mâyâ, due to a lack of discernment and true knowledge, an ignorance which itself stems from mâyâ.

But when there is metaphysical knowledge there is also awareness of the relativity of things in the light of the Absolute, and this fundamental truth is a permanent element in man's situation in the Universe, and concerns his destiny as a being who is called upon to seek to transcend the cosmic crypt into which he has fallen and to return from the domain of the relative to the Absolute.[^4] Another element of permanence in the relation of man to the Universe is the manifestation of the Absolute in the relative in the form of symbols understood in the traditional sense of the word.[^5] A symbol is not based on man made conventions.

It is an aspect of the ontological reality of things and is as such independent of man's perception of it.[^6] The symbol is the revelation of a higher order of reality in a lower order through which man can be led back to the higher sphere. To understand symbols is to accept the hierarchic structure of the Universe and the multiple states of being.