The Secret Doctrine of Goddess Lalita
(Sri LalitaAṣṭottara Rahasyārthamu)
37. hēyōpādēya varjitā
She who has nothing to reject or accept.
The one who attains that Supreme state (parāniṣṭhā) while still embodied is a jīvanmukta. In order to live, the body, mind, and sense organs are necessary. As long as these adjuncts (upādhi-s) are present, transactions with the empirical world are unavoidable. What is the meaning of liberation then?
Even though a jīvanmukta appears to have a body and appears to transact with the world, he maintains equanimity. He neither desires nor rejects anything. He sees no duality since he transcends duality. In reality, there is neither good nor bad in the world. Everything in essence is sat-cīt, Existence-Consciousness. To the one who sees everything as Self, Pure Consciousness, there is nothing to reject or desire. How can one reject one’s own nature? There is nothing to desire either because there is no other to desire. The most desirable entity, Self, is already in our possession. If It has to be newly acquired, It cannot be the real Self.
There can only be one formless and all-pervasive entity. Space is such an entity. It neither desires nor rejects anything. It is not subject to likes and dislikes. When physical space itself is undifferentiated, we can imagine the undifferentiated nature of Devī, who is cītākaṣa, Conscious-space. She is everywhere, in everything, and everything is in Her. There is nothing in the universe that is not Her. She is beyond all dualities - good and bad, desirable and undesirable. But She is mahāmāyā and mahāśakti, the Great Illusion and the Great Power of Illusion that can manifest duality. Her manifestation is Her expansion (vibhūti). Her manifestation abounds in transactions. She engenders dualities, likes and dislikes, and plays with them. In this state, She is not varjita (not devoid of likes and dislikes). These nāma-s can be interpreted in two ways – that Devī is full of polarities (likes and dislikes) or that She is devoid of all polarities. This is also the state of the jīvanmukta who realizes and abides in Devi as Pure Consciousness.