Maya is the lower Prakriti: Maya is the Apara or lower prakriti. Sri Adi Sankara says this prakriti brings about the undesirable. This is the prakriti that brings about samsara or seeking. It’s illusory attraction lures an ignorant person into seeking, binding him further in the chains of happiness and sorrow. My Real Nature-Para Prakriti: The Lord says-other than this Apara Prakriti or Maya there is another Prakriti which is the higher one. It is pure and untouched. Apara Prakriti binds an individual into samsara so it was called the Lower Prakriti. On the other hand when one gains the knowledge of this Para Prakriti one is liberated, so it is also called the Higher Prakriti.
Sri
Krishna
says all beings and
elements have their cause in this two-fold Prakriti. Therefore I
am the one from
whom this entire world comes; so too,
I am the one into whom everything resolves.
My Real Nature is You: Here Sri Krishna speaks as Ishwara and not as an individual form. Speaking thus he says please understand my Real Nature and that real nature is Jivabhuta-in the form of the jiva. And that is none other than you. Jiva is one who is there in every physical body. It is the one who illumines the sensory world, the body, the senses, the mind and the intellect. This is the Atma. The entire objective world and the body-mind complex go through changes but the Atma is always there in and through all the changes including birth and death. This truth has been explained in another way too in the 13th Chapter of the Gita where Bhagwan says the body & mind complex is a kshetra -a field and the one who illumines the world and the body-mind complex is the Kshetragya-the knower of the field. Know the Para Prakriti to be the Kshetragya of this field. Everything exists in this two-fold Prakriti: Sri Krishna says all beings and elements have their cause in this two-fold Prakriti. Therefore I am the one from whom this entire world comes; so too, I am the one into whom everything resolves. The two fold prakriti includes all beings begining from Brahmaji the creator to the smallest worm. All non-living things too come in the fold of this prakriti. All the lokas, all knowledge, all the celestial beings, the entire cosmos is borne of this two fold prakriti. One is of the the nature of Brahman and the other is the Maya Shakti. This two fold prakriti is nothing but me alone. I am the cause for the projection of this entire world. I am of the nature of Sat Chit Ananda, the Para Prakriti and I alone project this entire world through my Maya shakti the Apara Prakriti. I am the one from which everything comes. I am the one into whom everything goes back. therefore there is nothing other than my self. Both the Prakritis are nothing but me alone. Please ascertain this truth. - 11 -