[Advaita-l] An adhyAsa challenge

[Nomadeva Sharma]

Dear Jayanarayanan,

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:
 
> Premise: logic and experience only, no quotes from
> shruti or smR^iti.
> 
> The debate:
> 
> (1) Surely, you will accept that the Self is
> conscious.
> 
> (2) Surely, you will also accept that the body is
> inert or unconscious. 
> 
> (3) We observe, as a matter of experience, that one
> assumes a relationship between the Self and the body
> ("I am tall", "I am typing this email" etc.). 

This is a matter of linguistic convenience. For eg;
one knows that it is one's fingers that is typing this
mail. Just an observation, not to rule out your
question.

> I declare that you and your school are incapable of
> providing a satisfactory answer to the following
> question:
> 
> A co-existence of the Self that is of the nature of
> consciousness with the body that is of the nature of
> the unconscious ought to be impossible (indeed, one
> might as well consider light to co-exist with
> darkness), yet, it so happens that people perceive a
> connection between the Self and the body - how do
> you explain this?

If you used anumAna of light-darkness, here's a
duShaNAnumAna supporting co-existence of mutually
contradictory things (I am not talking of
samanAdhikaraNya, though).

vAyu, one of the panchamahAbhUtas, is generally taken
to be "rUparahitaH sparshavAnvAyuH", while, pR^ithvI
is 'rUpasahitaH'. One notices their co-existence.

If you are asking how the link between consciousness
and body happens, noting that the consciousness is, to
a great extent, incapable and ignorant, I'd postulate
another being, who has inconceivable powers, whose
ichChA shakti can by itself move the world.

Any corresponding quote in the shruti is coincidence
:-)

> Consequences: if the referees decide that your
> answer to the above question is invalid, then you 
> will immediately quit your postings on adhyAsa, 

I'd go for it.

Regards,
Krishna



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