[advaitin] Notes on Brahmasuutra - IIIa

[Gummuluru Murthy]

namaste.

I congratulate shri Sadananda garu for his scholarship and for his
enthusiasm in presenting the Notes on Brahma sUtrA-s. The Notes is
very clear and I am really grateful to him for this.


On Tue, 29 Aug 2000, Kuntimaddi Sadananda wrote:

>                    Notes on Brahmasuutra -IIIa
>
> [...]

> (A Note: We pause here for few days for us to think deeply - Is puurvapakshi
> or objector right in his arguments? If we are convinced of Adviata can we
> contour his arguments to show that adhyaasa is possible in the case of
> aatma-anaatma case? - what do you think? How do you address these
> objections? Can one argue that all the four requirements are met in the case
> of aatma-anaatma case as in the case of rope-snake example and therefore
> adhyaasa is applicable? Or is it the time now to switch our party and move
> to a different list?  The ball is now in your court.)
>

But, isn't there a difference in our seeing the adhyAsa of snake on
the rope and of anAtmA on AtmA? I am sure there is.

anAtmA on AtmA: It is the anAtmA which is seeing this. anAtmA on
AtmA will be identical to snake on the rope if it is the snake that
is seeing the adhyAsa. In anAtmA on AtmA, it is the anAtma that is
perceiving the adhyAsa. In snake on the rope, it is not the snake
that is seeing it, but another entity.

Just like snake does not have an existence apart from the rope, the
anAtmA does not have existence either apart from the AtmA. However,
because anAtmA *thinks* it has existence independent of AtmA, it
falls into saMsAra and the whole misery. Because anAtmA wrongly
sees AtmA as the object (which it can never do because anAtmA is
the object and AtmA is always the subject), hence the difficulty
in understanding adhyAsa, which we can do for snake on a rope
but not as easily for anAtmA on AtmA.

Am I correct in this presentation?

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
----------------------------------------------------------------------

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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