Matter’s own reality, if you care to find it, will be in those atoms, particles, sub-particles—go to any limit—that will be Light. To our conceptual viewing, matter looks inert, inanimate or dead. If it were dead, matter would crumble, disintegrate and then transform into something else again. But Light is throughout, continuous. That is why sages have said: “All is Divine.” When they say “all,” there is no exception; it includes illusions, conceptions, matter—everything is Divine. Everything is intrinsically made of Light. It’s a matter of finding that out. When you use the faculty of analysis you are bound to make mistakes because you divide and separate and compare and then try to bridge it all up again. Synthesis is not part of modern science yet. The Vedas have eloquently explained that there is no non-being. In the famous Rig Veda hymn it states that if matter or illusion is non-existent, then why even talk about it? You don’t talk about something that doesn’t exist. It is a fallacy because mind or intellect has the tendency to create antithesis. To me it is fully satisfying to say, “It is all God.”
 

HEN WHAT IS ILLUSION? If it is not reality, then what is it? Because illusion is somewhat perceptible or conceivable, in a certain limited area of reality, it has its own existence of which you and I are a part. What is the reality of illusion, then? If everything is Divine and everything is Light, then illusion must have the same basis. Whatever the reality of its existence be, it is something. If there is Light within illusion, then illusion assumes some kind of existence.
      Shankaracharya¹ explained this very beautifully. He said: “Illusion appears to be real, but it is not really so.” It is an appearance only. It has some kind of formation, a temporary existence, but since it is not absolute or eternal, we cannot call it Reality. Still the question remains, what is illusion? We are part of illusion; that is the problem. Illusory beings are trying to understand illusion. One sage has given a very good reply: “If darkness is trying to understand darkness, it will never know since it is darkness itself. But bring in Light and darkness vanishes. It is simply not there.”

¹ Adi Shankaracharya, one of the most brilliant minds of ancient India, was a great sage and philosopher. He lived for only thirty-two years (788-820 A.D.) but his achievements were unparalleled. He propounded the Vedantic tenet that Brahman the Supreme and man are of one Essence and that all people should strive to realize this Oneness.