[Advaita-l] Discussion on "Knowledge and the means of Knowledge", with reference to VP

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 18 Mar 2008, sivaramakrishnan muthuswamy wrote:

> Thanks very much prabhu, I greatly appreciate your answer.  But honestly 
> your answer also points out the illusionary nature.

What I had hoped to illustrate is the difference between illusion and 
delusion.  Illusion is imagining that which isn't there.   Delusion is 
failing to understand what is there.

>  The very last 
> statement of yours "Even God who we assume to be a creator, maintainer, 
> and destroyer is in fact none of those and it is ignorance which causes 
> the false assumption".  If mind is the source of the God - "Sagun 
> Brahm"- The creater, then the same source also serve for the created as 
> well".  Don't you think so? Then the mind is the creater and the 
> created.

If the mind is the creator than why are our creations so much alike?  One 
should see a blue sky, one should see a green sky, another should see no 
sky etc.

That our experience of pratyaksha is so similiar is proof that "reality" 
is not "in here" but "out there." The mind does not create but it observes 
(and distorts) reality.

>  In my humble view the perceived duality can never be real but 
> just a relative stand point.

Yes.

> The issue is how the mind first of all come 
> in to existence.  And Advaita says it is"inexplicable".

That's not the inexplicable part.  The mind is a result of ahamkara 
("ego") which is a misunderstanding brought about by maya.  Maya is 
inexplicable.

> In other words 
> there is neither creation nor destruction and Atman alone exists 
> "Non-dual".  However a person may perceive the world real so long he 
> hasn't realized the true nature.

True.  What trips people up is that the "reality" of the Jnani is not the 
same thing as the "reality" of the ajnani.  Comparing apples and oranges 
is anirvachaniya ("inexplicable") just as how many gallons in a kilometer 
is logically inexplicable.

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