The projective force (vikṣepa-śakti), with its quality (guṇa), rajas of māyā, ensures the dispersion of this obscuring force. All of this occurs simultaneously. The material quality tamas of āvaraṇa śakti is set in motion, breathed into life, by vikṣepa. This manifests in a material world that I see before me, which seems to obscure the truth of myself. Thus, on an individual level, I am ignorant of myself as brahman, the infinite ocean of consciousness.

But is my true nature truly covered? Just as a thick cloud obscures the sun, āvaraṇa śakti obscures the self so well that ātmā is not seen for what it is. But this is only from a small, particular bundle of senses in a single spot on earth. The sun itself, of course, is not covered at all and always shines brightly. In reality, I, consciousness, am not covered at all either. I, ātman, continuously illuminate all objects that appear within me. I cannot be shut off, whether I appear covered or not. I am free from it. But the concealing force of āvaraṇa śakti obscures the distinction, so that I take what is projected onto me to be real. That is what āvaraṇa does; it confuses a clear distinction between the witness and the seen.

A third force of māyā shows me this. This is jñāna śakti. It is the reflection of sat in māyā and therefore has sattva as its characteristic. It manifests in the revealing knowledge (jñāna) that can occur within an individual to destroy the concealment.

Āvaraṇa śakti thus causes the false notion (adhyāsa) of being covered on an individual level. This leads to āropa (assigning attributes to myself, the attributeless). A seeming connection is then made between myself, the consciousness, and the objects that appear in consciousness or seem to be “placed” upon it, adhyāropa (superposition). Note: this connection is false (mithyā), and it produces a false cognitive experience (adhyāsa)! But it does evoke a feeling in body and mind: ahaṅkāra (ego), the “I” experience. This ego desires (kāma) for objects because it thinks it needs them. This produces action (karma) and saṁsāra (the transactional game in which we think we are participating).

The five elements form the tools used here. Āvaraṇa and vikṣepa therefore go hand in hand, just as tamas and rajas go hand in hand. The paradox here is that what seems to conceal is actually a projection or appearance of light to light. With the knowledge of the self, this is a beautiful paradox.

All knowledge (sattva), all power (rajas-tamas), is always potentially present. Unmanifested as māyā, manifested as īśvara. It is essential to realize that it is vivarta, an appearance, that comes and goes. It is not real. To realize this, I need sufficient sattva, the guṇa that reveals.

So why do I live in a private chamber, seemingly dissociated from others? Well, one specific stream of karma from a jīva means that for a specific individual, all knowledge, all power, is covered by āvaraṇa śakti, aligned with the prārabdha karma projected by vikṣepa-śakti, resulting in that one individual, a living bundle of small knowledge, small power. Thus, I can understand the container in which I live as a human being, or rather, the oppressive film that is presented to me. After all, I am simply the empty screen, full of itself.

Just as an individual seeks knowledge about the world, which is nothing but the revelation of what already existed but was covered up, so too does the individual acquire knowledge about the ignorance of their true nature as limitless, endless ātman/brahman.

I need only understand the self-luminosity (svaprakāśa) that allows everything to be, including the senses, which in turn perceive a world through the subtle body. This is nothing more than a play for the “third eye” of pure knowledge-consciousness. When it is unmanifested, as in deep sleep, for example, knowledge is not evident. In the waking state, my radiance becomes visible because there are objects, precisely attuned to karma, all of which are managed by īśvara.

Because there are also objects such as mind and intellect, in the waking state there is the possibility of self-knowledge. My intellect either knows (something) or does not know (something). Ignorance in itself has no real or independent existence. It is merely a particular perspective on or of knowledge. It is the opposite of knowledge (jñāna virodhi, anti-knowledge). There is no truly independent entity that can be called ignorance.

Therefore, the human mind has only two meanings: knowledge or ignorance. This is like day and night.

Ignorance at the level of mūla avidyā (individual ignorance at its root, or potential), is therefore still free from any form of division, as in deep sleep. There is no experience of duality until it is caused by the emergence of vikṣepa śakti. What is not veiled is that I exist (asti), radiate (bhāti), and am infinitely pleasant (priya).

Āvaraṇa śakti is a potentiality, a possibility in this limitlessness and non-duality of īśvara as pure knowledge. When this name and form (nāma-rūpa) take on (through vikṣepa śakti), īśvara “manifests” as the world in all its diversity, just as a dream manifests from the slumbering wakefulness.

It is always important to realize that consciousness is not truly covered, but remains pure. It is merely an apparent superposition. When I see a red mountain, do I not become red myself? Just as when I perceive my mind and body, do I not become my mind and body myself?

Thus, in knowledge, I can say: “Everything is me, even though everything (all possibilities) seems covered.” Why covered? This is because the limitations of the individual senses are precisely attuned to the āvaraṇa śakti of my specific karma. Īśvara, of course, “sees” everything. Everything is īśvara.

But it is all just appearance. In reality, everything is merely an expression of me, the fully shining being. That which appears and that which does not appear is me, but I, as the shining itself, am free from it.

Āvaraṇa śakti is also called āvṛti śakti.

In verses 15 and 16 of the īśa Upaniṣad, an esoteric-poetic play is played with this tension. Note that the sun, used above as a metaphor for the self-shining of consciousness, is presented in the īśa Upaniṣad as the covering object, the solar disk, which, with its physical light, through my senses, tricks my intellect and thus tries to stimulate me to attribute authenticity to the world.

The sun god Pusan, in this case a revealing aspect (sattva, jñāna śakti) of nothing other than īśvara, is then asked to reveal himself as myself, the pure intelligence of consciousness.

In Bhagavad Gītā 15.2, this is confirmed, and Krishna in turn says:

yad ādityagataṃ tejo jagad bhāsayate’khilam |
yac candramasi yac cāgnau tat tejo viddhi māmakam ||

The light that is in the sun, which illuminates the entire world, and the light that is in the moon and in fire, know that light to be mine.

This means: Know that I am the light that makes all physical light possible.