[Advaita-l] AvasthA-traya

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On 12/27/05, Amuthan Arunkumar R <aparyap at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
> namo nArAyaNAya!

> it is not necessary to be an avasthAtIta puruSha to
> state that the jAgrat and svapnAvasthA-s are of the
> same level of reality. since we experience both the
> jAgrat and svapnAvasthA-s, we are fully entitled to
> draw conclusions about it. noting that the dream
> experience is qualitatively identical to the waking
> experience, we can conclude without any further resort
> to the shAstra-s that both are of the same level or
> reality. the problem arises only with deep sleep. we
> cannot make any conclusion about that since we don't
> experience deep sleep during deep sleep. the necessity
> for being an avasthAtItA puruSha arises in this
> context.

The two levels of reality paaramaarthika vs vyaavahaarika should be
carefully distinguished. Only from the paaramaarthika dR^iShTi, the
waking state is on par with dream state. The equality consists of both
being unreal from the point of view of absolute truth. Clearly one
cannot sit in the waking state and claim the dream state is equally
real *from the point of view of waking state*. Quite silly, since the
dream object has been sublated and is known as unreal, wheras the
waking state objects are being experienced. This is clearly brought
out by sha.nkara in the suutra bhaaShya.

Again, the equality of the states means both are unreal from the
abosulte stand point only. It does NOT mean that the waking state does
not an empirical reality, apart from the observer. There is a flow of
time, vaikuNTha, shiva-loka, etc. All these have an empirical reality,
but are also similar to dream objects *in the sense that they are
superimpositions on brahman*. Of course, one need not be realized to
appreciate this philosophical position.

Rama