[Advaita-l] How can one claim to know Brahman?

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Thu, 10 Mar 2005, Mahesh Ursekar wrote:

> I fully agree with the above. But, my only point in the question was
> that when a realized soul claims "Brahman is Sat-chit-ananda", he or
> she is identifying Brahman as an object (different from him or
> herself) and with attributes

Sat, chit, and ananda are not attributes but the very ground from which
apprehension of attributes is even possible.  Take the phrase "The sky is
blue"

1. is in that phrase that denotes equivalence, would not be possible
   without the notion of existence.

2. The apprehension of skyness, blueness, etc requires consciouness.

3. bliss is the absence of defects.  The fact that we can make assertions
   like "the sky is blue" and believe them is because we have faith
   correct assertions can be made.

> so how is this possible when in the
> Brahman state (or Samadhi) there cannot be a difference between the
> knower (the person) and the known (Brahman).
>

It is not the case that we go from a state of "I do not know Brahman" to
"I do know Brahman"  Brahman is known to some extent by all sentient
beings because that is the meaning of sentience.  But for the non-jnani,
the knowledge is riddled with errors.  The task of Advaitic sadhana is to
correct those errors.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>