[Advaita-l] mithya and maya

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

Michaelji - PraNAms

Please note that maayaa is beginningless and therefore does not come in time as time itself is due to maayaa and so is the cycle of creation-sustenance-dissolution. The past and present are only concepts in the mind - what is there all the time is only present - NOW. Hence space-time all dissolve when the mind goes to sleep. 

Any explanation of maayaa involves intellect which itself a product of maayaa - hence Shankara says it is anirvacaniiyam - inexplicable - just as asking which is first -seed or tree? - cause-effect relations which are in the realm of time gets sublated when you inquire about the truth that is beyond logic and reason - Hence sastra alone is pramaaNa for this.

From the absolute point there is no creation since creation itself is relative. Hence all these questions do not have significance from the truth point. Advaita is called by dvaitins as maaya vaada - but actually what it should be called only Brahma vaada - since Brahman alone is which is advaita and from Brahman point there is no maayaa also. Maayaa is brought in to explain the appearance of one as many just as in dream. Just as in math we use X for the unknown which is ultimately dropped when X is solved - similarly maaya is factor to explain that which cannot be explained otherwise. It is dropped unceremoniously once one realizes that I am Brahman, one without a second. 

This is my understanding.

Hari Om!
Sadananda

--- On Tue, 1/6/09, Michael Shepherd <michael at shepherd87.fsnet.co.uk> wrote:


I'm curious to understand how maayaa, as the magic of Creation, should have
come, in time,  to be regarded as a veil, an obstacle, in 'seeing through
mithya'.. why did the 'wonder' disappear from maayaa ?!

Some commentators on Shankara seem to blame him for making maayaa seem like
this, an obstacle to be overcome by jnana rather than by bhakta..

Could you explain how this misunderstanding was inevitable in some minds ?

Michael Shepherd



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