It now remains to be seen how Adwaitees account for the origin of mental states in a particular individual.  Apparently the mind of a particular human being is not the universal mind.  Nevertheless Cosmic ideation is the real source of the states of consciousness in every individual.  Cosmic ideation exists everywhere; but when placed under restrictions by a material Upadhi it results as the consciousness of the individual inhering in such Upadhi.  Strictly speaking, an Adwaitee will not admit the objective existence of this material Upadhi.  From his standpoint it is Maya or illusion which exists as a necessary condition of Pragna.  But to avoid confusion, I shall use the ordinary language; and to enable my readers to grasp my meaning clearly the following simile may be adopted.  Suppose a bright light is placed in the centre with a curtain around it.  The nature of the light that penetrates through the curtain and becomes visible to a person standing outside depends upon the nature of the curtain.  If several such curtains are thus successively placed around the light, it will have to penetrate through all of them; and a person standing outside will only perceive as much light as is not intercepted by all the curtains.  The central light becomes dimmer and dimmer as curtain after curtain is placed before the observer; and as curtain after curtain is removed the light becomes brighter and brighter until it reaches its natural brilliancy.  Similarly, universal mind or Cosmic ideation becomes more and more limited and modified by the various Upadhis of which a human being is composed; and when the action or influence of these various Upadhis is successively controlled, the mind of the individual human being is placed en rapport with the universal mind and his ideation is lost in Cosmic ideation.

As I have already said, these Upadhis are strictly speaking the conditions of the gradual development or evolution of Bahipragna—­or consciousness in the present plane of our existence—­from the original and eternal Chinmatra, which is the seventh principle in man, and the Parabrahmam of the Adwaitees.

This then is the purport of the Adwaitee philosophy on the subject under consideration, and it is, in my humble opinion, in harmony with the Arhat doctrine relating to the same subject.  The latter doctrine postulates the existence of Cosmic matter in an undifferentiated condition throughout the infinite expanse of space.  Space and time are but its aspects, and Purush, the seventh principle of the universe, has its latent life in this ocean of Cosmic matter.  The doctrine in question explains Cosmogony from an objective point of view.