Goodness (was Re: [Advaita-l] 'End' not 'Means')

[Sailesh Ganesh]

Hello everyone

My sole aim here is to provide a different perspective on this debate.

On 5/3/06, Amuthan <aparyap at yahoo.co.in> wrote:
>
>
> this issue has been discussed many times before. it is
> NOT possible to derive the basic principles of advaita
> without shruti pramANa.
>
> to see why this is so, consider the most basic claim
> of advaita : 'brahman alone exists.' brahman is that
> from which the universe is born, that in which it is
> sustained and that into which it dissolves finally.


The experiments in the field of quantum physics have shown that events (such
as the position, velocity of an electron) can only be described in terms of
probabilities, and yet when we try to observe, we get a definite result (for
example, Young's double slit experiment). This has been shown many times,
and the very act of observation causes a superposition of values (which is
another way of saying we can only define probabilities) to collapse into a
single value. The only explanation for this is that it is our consciousness
that is collapsing the probabilities and creating this reality. Since two
people do not see two different realities either, the consciousness present
in them must be the same. In other words, there is only a single
consciousness and the universe as we see arises from consciousness itself.
Thus, consciousness alone exists. Now this has been derived without use of
the vedas.

However, the mere presence of consciousness does not imply the advaita
philosophy (IMHO). I'm sure a person from the dvaita or vishishtadvaita
school of thought would interpret this result as proof of their philosophy.
Does anyone have a better explanation of this?

Note: The above explanation of consciousness as the source behind existance
has not been accepted by most scientists, because they have an aversion to
the notion of consciousness as a distinct entity. Scientists like to think
of the universe as a machine with consciousness only a byproduct.

Thanks
Sailesh

--
Ekam sat, viprā bahudā vadanti (The truth is one, the wise call it different
names) - Rig Veda (1.164.46)