[Advaita-l] I am Alone in the Universe?

[Anand Hudli]

It is not possible to logically refute the eka-jIva-vAda. However, I would
like to point out that even a dream object, be it a person or an inert
thing, must have as its substratum (adhiShThAna) Brahman Itself. What I
mean to say is that the person or thing cannot be dismissed as a mere
nothing, a figment of one's imagination. In the case of a person, admitting
that this person is a jIva-semblance for the dreamer, it is possible that
this jIva-semblance whose substratum is Brahman seeks liberation using the
very same sources being mentioned, i.e. Guru, Ishvara, VedAnta, etc. and
perhaps attains "liberation" and lives on as a jIvanmukta. At this point,
the eka-jIva-vAda is not very far from the aneka-jIva-vAda, because it
admits jIva-semblances that can possibly attain liberation independently of
the dreamer. It can even so happen that the dreamer sees many such
jIva-semblances attaining liberation, and yet the dreamer may still be
dreaming! If the objection is that these are not actual jIvas but
semblances of jIvas, in the final analysi, even the concepts of jIva,
jagat, and Ishvara as explained in the aneka-jIva-vAda are due to mAyA and
not real.

Anand