advaitam and Kashmir shaivam

Gregory Goode goode at DPW.COM
Thu Jul 31 13:33:36 CDT 1997


At 12:07 PM 7/31/97 -0500, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:
>Gregory Goode wrote:
>
>>A: You are not instructed to shut your eyes to the world.  You
>>are only to 'see yourself first and then see the whole world as
>>the Self'.  If you consider yourself as the body the world
>>appears to be external.  If you are the Self the world appears
>                          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>as Brahman.
>^^^^^^^^^^^
>
>If the world is seen as brahman it is quite obvious that there is
>non-existence of name and form, because brahman is beyond name and form.
>This is from the highest stand point namely sarvaM khalvidaM brahma.
>
>As long as the world as it is seen it is a superimposition and by mAyA,
>thus we say neti neti. It is rather obvious from the context. Please re
>read what I have underlined. If you are the self the world appear as
>brahman and not the world. It doesn't mean that for "advanced" aspirants
>the world as we perceive it becomes real once more.

Yes, but the world hasn't disappeared, it's instead being seen as Brahman.
RM doesn't say that anything disappears, or that name and form are not
there.  If X is the world and Y as Brahman, seeing X as Y doesn't mean X
isn't seen.   If RM Himself simply hadn't seen name and form, how could the
body
have carried out its daily biological functions?  How could He have answered
to the address of Bhagavan?

Do you think the underlined portion above means "world looks like Brahman"?

--Greg



More information about the Advaita-l mailing list