Concept of personal God and Advaita

[nanda chandran]

>Advaita also is apprehdended by experience, but a different kind of
>experience that is based upon knowledge and realization of the Reality of
>the Phenomenal World and of Ultimate Reality.

See I'm talking about the experience of a normal person and not that of a
realized sage - for a realized sage you neither need scriptures or Advaita
philosophy.

Non-dualism - a state where no difference is entertained between oneself and
other objects in the world - is not open to normal experience.

>From direct experience, IMO, the only thing you can infer is that "I don't
>know who I truly am". This is after an analysis of the three states of
>sleep, deep sleep and waking state. It can also be inferred that "I am
>conscious". You can also stretch this to say that consciousness is
>everywhere. However, you cannot conclude from these that "I am
>consciousness" and "Everything is Consciousness" and "Nothing but
>Consciousness is there" is not a part of our everyday experience.

You do not call that which you can infer as direct experience. Do you have
the wholesome feeling of being a human being which can see, hear, talk etc?
That's direct experience. Even as normal people can directly experience
themselves as humans so can jnaanis directly experience themselves as pure
consciousness.

>Sorry for cutting in here but how are these two systems experienced or
>observed everyday. We experience duality or plurality, that is granted.
>However, both these systems talk of a jiva that is eternal.

Eternality is only a philosophical description of the absolute - we call it
eternal in contrast to phenomenal things that are temporary. As transient
things represent suffering, we call that which is changeless and represents
bliss as eternal. But strictly speaking eternality is only a concept
attributed to the absolute.

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