Swami Nikhilananda makes an excellent remark about the nature of superimposition in his translation of Sadananda’s Vedanta-sara (“The Essence of Vedanta”).

A standard line about superimposition is that it involves veiling the real with the unreal. This is a bit fuzzy. A clearer definition is supplied by Swami Nikhilananda: superimposition refers to “erroneously attributing the properties of one thing to another.”

That is clear!

Take a simple example: one is simply aware, and later on the mind rises and reports, “I lost track of time.” Here, the property of time–or time passing–is erroneously attributed to pure awareness (which is beyond time), and thus it is believed that awareness exists in time.

The direct path teaching of Sri Atmananda can now be understood: through very pointed inquiries and experiments, one sees (a) various erroneous attributions as well as (b) the nature of consciousness without these erroneous attributions (“de-superimposition”). That’s all.

Without superimposition, there is only Brahman-Self.