[Advaita-l] Body is the disease

[Anand Hudli]

Srinath Vedagarbha wrote:

>(As long as the idea of the Self is identified with the body consciousness
>so long i.e, till the realization of the true nature of Atman, the world
>perception, the reality of the world is
>also equally valid.)

>This last one is important for the context of our current debate. I am
>pretty sure Madhusudhana's opponents are not denying the fact that in
>Advaita siddhAnta provisional reality (and resulting provisional bhEda) is
>accorded to this jagat. They are not saying such attribution is wrong in
>itself either. What, if my reading of their text is correct, is being
>contested is that summoning of such "provisionally valid" elements to
>support Advaita's stand in the vAda. In reality, those "provisionally
>valid" elements are meant only for upAsana purpose and definitely not for
>tatva-niSchaya.

I would like to make two points here. First, advaitins are justified
in using provisional facts to derive provisional conclusions. I think
you would have no problem in agreeing to this. The question of the
locus of avidyA is a provisional one, since there is no avidyA at all
really, and the answer is also provisional. It is like asking - "In
the dream last night, was I sick or was it my friend?"  If one says
the locus is Brahman, it is a provisional answer. If one says the
locus is jIva, it is again provisional. The second point, which you
seem to be completely missing, is that provisional facts may, in fact,
be used to arrive at tattva itself. How? A frequent example cited is
that of a dream tiger that causes real fear and sweat upon waking up.
The dream tiger was provisionally real as long as tIhe dream lasted,
but it did have a real effect - fear and sweat. Another example is
that of the famous illusory snake. A person may really tremble in fear
and run away upon seeing the illusory snake. Taking even the shruti
vAkya "tattvamasi" as provisional, one may wake up to the reality of
Brahman.

Anand