[Advaita-l] The essence of advaita

[prabha]

Pranams Senani-ji,

Thank you very much for the response. I am hoping that Sastriji, Maheshji
and all other scholars would weigh in on this :)

> The Atman forgets its permanent (true, sat, nitya) nature of Brahman
> and gets associated with the fleeting (untrue, asat, anitya) phenomenon
> that the world is, due to mAyA.

I have great difficulty with this concept. Since Brahman is pure, complete,
knowledge (omniscience), is it not reasonable to argue that it could not be
deluded by anything including power of Maya (which itself is not separate
from the Brahman)? If Brahman could be (prevailed upon), then one could
argue that Brahman is not omniscient or omnipotent? Could you kindly explain
where I am going wrong?

Prabha

On 9/22/07, Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: prabha prabhagc at gmail.com
>
> If the above is true, to whom does the illusion occur? I am not asking WHY
> there is the illusion or WHO is causing it – I accept that it is due to
> Maya
> – but to WHOM is the illusion happening?
>
>   1. Since we (Jivaatmas) are inside the Universe, we are part of the
>   illusion, hence cannot be the observers as the illusion cannot observe
>   itself.  Is this statement incorrect?
>
> Pranams Prabhaji
>
> Though this question is addressed to the learned scholar Br. Sri S. N.
> Sastry, I am making bold to share my understanding, in a spirit of testing
> my understanding.
>
> The illusion is to the Atman, which is the same as Brahman. The Atman
> forgets its permanent (true, sat, nitya) nature of Brahman and gets
> associated with the fleeting (untrue, asat, anitya) phenomenon that the
> world is, due to mAyA. The very statement that "we jivatmas are inside the
> universe" contains an assumption that the full extent of the Atman is only
> that which is inside, or more accurately seeming to be inside, the universe.
>
> It might be useful to take the example of a dream: if I dream about
> something involving me as well - I become a part of the illusion, but my
> dream-self is only a part of my full self. There is a sAkshi outside, the
> underlying turIya-avasthA which is the substratum of, and pervades, the
> waking, dreaming, and dreamless-sleep states. It is the same with the world:
> the self in the world is indeed an amSa - as perceived by the antahkaraNa
> that the mind is - of the complete Self, but the complete Self is always the
> subject, never the object, to the extent we permit the subject-object
> differentiation.
>
> Whenever we consider the tripuTi - the three components of subject -
> object - action or j~nAtri-j~neya-j~nAna, at some level it boils down to
> wondering at the inadequacy of language and the other tools of thought in
> expressing how these three resolve into the Sat, the Eternal. How true are
> the Sruti-vAkyas: yato vAco nivartante ... aprApya manasA saha...!
>
> Regards
> Senani
>
>
>
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