advaita-siddhi 14 (MadhusUdana's reply contd.)

[Anand Hudli]

On Sat, 18 Mar 2000 13:30:27 +0530, elmec <elmec at GIASBG01.VSNL.NET.IN>
wrote:

>Thank you so much, Anand . You have taken so much of trouble to even
>provide
>a simple , understandable example to illustrate the three different
>orders of
>reality. So it is sort of a hierarchy where the paaramaarthika occupies
>the
>highest place ( so high a place that we sometimes lose sight of it ! )

Another point that can be made is this. If Brahman, the pAramArthika
sattva is the absolute reality, we can have different levels of
relative reality. The unreality of each level depends on the how many
layers of superimposition that should be removed in order to get to
the bottom-most substratum, ie. Brahman. As the superimpositions become
more numerous and complex, it becomes that much difficult, in general,
to remove them and get to the one and only reality. This also perhaps
why material possessions become a hindrance to Self-Realization. Take
for instance a poor man. He has very little possessions that he identifies
as his. That means he makes relatively fewer super-impositions on the Self.
He does not have a house that he can call his own. He does not have a
car that he can call his own. He does not have bank balance that he can
call his own. And so on. He does not falsely identify himself with
possessions because he has none! A rich man, on the other hand, has a
significantly harder task to remove his complex superimpositions on the
Self. He has vast material possessions that he falsely identifies with
the Self. He thinks he owns a big house, many cars, servants, bank
accounts, and so on. He is in a deeper state of illusion, deeper in mAyA,
than the poor man.

I am not saying that a poor person will always realize the Self, only
that he has a better starting point than the rich person. If the poor
person does not make use of the conducive environment, his natural
advantage, towards realizing the Self, he is no better than the rich
person in being trapped in mAyA.  The rich person can also possibly
remove the complex layers of superimposition, but he has to work much
harder towards that end, making the task practically impossible to achieve,
unless he "converts" to a poor person by renouncing his riches!

That is why the bhAgavata says: "daridrasyaiva yujyante sAdhavaH
samadarshinaH", the saints associate with the poor, even though the
saints see everyone as equal. But the case of modern-day sAdhus is a
different story!

Anand

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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