individualistic existence and imagines a world of manifold separateness composed of many individuals with their respective minds and bodies.
When the rays of the sun are made to pass through a prism, they get dispersed and become separate owing to refraction. If each of these rays had consciousness, it would consider itself as being separate from the other rays, forgetting entirely that at source and on the other side of the prism it had no separate existence. Separateness exists only in imagination In the same way, the One Being descends into the domain of maya and assumes a multiplicity which does not in fact exist. The separateness of individuals does not exist in reality but only in imagination. The one Universal Soul imagines separateness in itself, and out of this division there arises the thought of “I” and “mine” as opposed to “you” and “yours.” Although the soul is in reality an undivided and absolute unity, it appears as being manifold and divided owing to the working of its own imagination. Imagination is not a reality. Even in its highest flight, it is a departure from truth. It is anything but the truth. The experience which the soul gathers in terms of the individualised ego is all imagination. It is a misapprehension of the soul. Out of the imagination of the Universal Soul are born many individuals. This is maya or ignorance.
Side by side with the birth of the separate and limited individuality there also comes into existence the objective universe. Objective universe As the limited individuality has separate existence not in fact but only in imagination, the objective universe also has no independent and separate reality. It is the One Universal Self appearing in the second role of manifestation through the attributes.
