Infinite, and yet it comes to identify itself with the phenomenal world of forms which are many and finite and destructible. This is Maya or the Cosmic illusion.

STATES OF THE PHENOMENAL WORLD:

The phenomenal world of finite objects is utterly illusionary and false. It has three states: (1) the GROSS, (2) the SUBTLE and (3) the MENTAL. Although all these three states of the world are false, they represent different degrees of falseness. Thus, the gross world is farthest from Truth (GOD); the subtle world is nearer Truth; and the mental world is nearest Truth. But all three states of the world owe their existence to the cosmic illusion which the soul has to transcend before it realizes the Truth.

THE PURPOSE OF CREATION:

We have here to discover the purpose of creation. The sole purpose of creation is that the soul should be able to enjoy the Infinite state of the Over-soul consciously. Although the soul eternally exists in and with the Over-soul in an inviolable unity, it cannot be conscious of this unity independently of the creation which is within the limitations of time. It must, therefore, evolve consciousness before it can realize its true status and nature as being identical with the Infinite Over-soul, which is One without a second. The evolution of consciousness required the duality of the subject and the object . . . the center of consciousness and the environment, (i.e., the world of forms).

THE GENESIS OF COSMIC ILLUSION:

We are here faced with the problem of accounting for the cosmic illusion which is caused by the world of forms. How does the soul get caught up in the illusion? How did the Formless, Infinite and Eternal Soul come to experience itself as having form, and as being finite and destructible? How did the PURUSHA or the Supreme Spirit come to think of itself as PRAKRATI or the world of nature? In other words, what is the cause of the cosmic illusion in which the soul finds itself?

To realize the true status of the Over-soul which is One, Indivisible, Real and Infinite, the soul needed consciousness. The soul did get consciousness, but this consciousness was not of God but of the Universe; not of the Over-Soul but of its shadow; not of the one but of many; not of the