Birth and death and rebirth from Advaitist viewpoint

[Vaidya N. Sundaram]

Namaskarams:

 Kindly refer to the search engine of the archives of this list at
http://listserv.tamu.edu/cgi/wa?S1=advaita-l
 this question posed by you has been dealt with in one form or another
several times. It would make a good starting point for you to get
references ...

 briefly: the jIva thinks of itself as embodied due to delusion or mAya
and hence attributes to its' own action the concept or karma. And it hence
gets bound in karma and has to go thru the process of birth and death; the
actual process is REAL. That is to say, as long as you are embodied and
look at your self as Ashish Chandra, you do undergo the pains and joys of
being a human, including birth, death, old age, disease, fear and sadness
and so on ... This is vyAvahaarika sathyam. Simply saying that the soul is
one and so there is no birth cannot be said when you are in this state.
When one transends this and goes to pAramaarthika state, all is one and no
duality exists.

 as always, if I wrong, I hope knowledgeable listmembers will point it
out.

sadAshivasamArambhAm shankaraachaarya madhyamaam
asmathAchaarya paryanthaam vande guru paramparaam

Vaidya.


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 The place, time, objects and their knower etc., projected in a dream
during sleep are all mithyA (an illusion/false). So too, here. in the
waking state, the world that is seen is a projection by one's own
ignorance. Likewise, this body, the senses, the breath, the ego etc.,
are all unreal. Therefore, That thou art, the peaceful, defectless,
supreme, non-dual Brahman.  -- Adi Shankara in VivekacUdAmani.
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On Tue, 15 Dec 1998, Ashish Chandra wrote:

> Namaste All,
>
> I have had the following question nag me for a few months. I have never
> asked anyone for an answer and have endeavored to find the answer myself,
> but so far I have been unsuccessful. Here goes.
>
> If the Atman is Brahma, what is it that is manifested again and again
> through birth and rebirth. If there is no duality, then what is it that is
> manifested into all that is living, dying and being (re)born ? When we say
> that there is no birth or death or rebirth for one who has realised Brahma,
> which part of us do we mean i.e. Atman was being manifested all along in
> all these births. What stops ? If there is no part, what is not reborn ?
>
>
> Thanks in advance. I would also appreciate if anyone can direct me to a
> written answer by early Vedantic sages or Shankara and/or his disciples or
> anyone else who has experienced Brahma.
>
>
> Ashish
>
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> "bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam"
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