[Advaita-l] HH Sri SSS on adhyAsa..continued VERY IMPORTANT

[Anand Hudli]

bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

>9.  How and when was this mutual super-imposition of identity and mistaken 
>transference of >properties caused??  THIS QUESTION IS OBVIOUSLY 
>ILLEGITIMATE, FOR WE HAVE LEARNT >THAT IT IS AN INNATE TENDENCY OF THE 
>HUMAN MIND TO CONFOUND THE REAL AND THE >UNREAL.  ALL HUMAN ACTION AND 
>EXPERIENCE OF THE FRUITS OF ACTION PRESUPPOSE >INTELLECTION AND 
>INTELLECTION ITSELF IS BASED ON THIS NATAL ERROR.  HUMAN >BEHAVIOUR IS ON A 
>PAR WITH ANIMAL BEHAVIOUR IN THIS RESPECT FOR BOTH ARE THE >RESULT OF THIS 
>NATURAL WANT OF DISCRIMINATION.  Sankara's dicta on this point are 
> >incontrovertible for THEY ARE ALL BASED UPON UNIVERSAL INTUITION.

There is a central problem here. It may be fine with modern philosophies or 
non-orthodox schools of philosophy to refuse to answer a question, but it is 
not the case with Shankara's philosophy. After all, it is also universal 
intuition to expect the world as we see it today has been, by and large, the 
same and will continue to be the same. We wake up everyday and find the 
world to be the same. We do not wake up and suddenly find the world to have 
ended. Should we then refuse to answer the question, "How did the world 
arise? What is the cause?"  shruti, smR^iti, purANas, etc., all tell us that 
the world certainly has a beginning, a middle phase, and an end. I am not 
even bringing in Science with its Big Bang and other theories here, which 
are only theories.

The point is there are central questions that every school of philosophy 
worth its salt must necessarily answer. If adhyAsa is a central concept in a 
philosophy, then it is perfectly legitimate to ask "How does this adhyAsa 
arise? What causes this adhyAsa?" Even the so called theist schools answer 
tough questions such as: "If God is infinitely great, powerful, 
compassionate, etc. why do we have suffering in the world? Why cannot God 
end all this suffering right now?" The schools answer that it is God's lIlA 
or according to the law of karma where everyone must experience the 
consequences of their karma. They do not say: "Don't ask that question. It 
is illegitimate." Now, one may argue that they have shifted the burden of 
answering the tough question of world suffering to God's lIlA or law of 
karma, but it does open up the scope for further questions. In fact, the 
dvaitins have a well developed theory of jIvas, their gradations, the world, 
its creation, maintenance, destruction, the bhedas, bhakti, mokSha, 
pramANas, and other concepts.

Therefore, it follows that everything that is seen or experienced  must have 
a cause. Whether the cause itself is correctly identified is a different 
matter, but no one can object to a question that asks for the cause.

Anand

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