[Advaita-l] The essence of vedanta

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams Sastriji:

Thanks. I will reflect (thanks to Brahman! :-) ) on your answer some more
since, at this stage, I don't understand it fully.

Thanks again, Mahesh


On 9/24/07, S.N. Sastri <sn.sastri at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Maheshji,
> Brahman is pure Consciousness. It has no action at all even in the
> vyAvahArika state. You have to distinguish between the very nature of an
> entity and an action by that entity.
>
> Light is the very nature of the sun. So the nature of the sun is to shine.
> It cannot but shine. It shines whether there is any object to be illumined
> or not. Though we say, "The sun shines", "The sun illumines", that is only
> because that is the only way we can express it. It does not mean any
> action.
> The sun is just there in its own nature.
>
> The nature of fire is to burn and so burning is not an action by fire.
> Pure
> consciousness is the very nature of Brahman . When this consciousness is
> reflected on the mind, the mind appears to have sentiency of its own. The
> mind, with the reflection of consciousness in it functions through the
> sense-organs. The Self does not perform any action. Sri Sankara has
> brought
> this out in Vivekachudamani, Sloka 131:--
>
> "In whose mere presence the body, senses, mind and intellect engage
> themselves with their respective objects, as if prompted—that is the Self
> or
> Brahman. So though it may look as if the Self is prompting the body, etc.,
> to action actually it does not do anything and its mere presence is enough
> to make them function".
>
> S.N.Sastri
>
>
> In order for the mind to "catch the reflection (of Brahman)", don't we
> have
> to posit a Brahman (sun) that "illumimes it"? Or in other words, aren't
> the
> mind catching the relection and Brahman illumining the mind different ways
> of saying the same thing? If that is so, then my original question still
> stands viz. how can we attribute an action to Brahman in the vyaharika
> satta?
> Mahesh
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