[Advaita-l] dva suparNA

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

On Fri, 11/13/15, Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

 I have no problems
 if you prefer to call the second bird as sAkshi instead,
 but sAkshi is nirguNa brahman, so I don't
 agree with your statement saying
 it is not
 nirguNa brahman.
 
 The
 lakshyArtha of tat and tvam have to be the same.
 
------------------
PraNAms

That is true. A simple example to differentiate Saakshee vs Chidaabaasa that I give in my class is the sunlight falling on the moon and get reflected by the moon. Sunlight is uncontaminated and that part of sunlight that falls on the moon is saakshee and the reflected light depends on the reflected medium. When looking at the moon one cannot see (distinguish) the original sunlight, although actually one is only seeing the original sunlight since moon is non-luminous. Same way buddhi (moon) and chidaabhaasa (moon-light) in relation to Saakshee (original sunlight).

That part of the light that is falling on the moon is different from the the part that is falling on say Venus, even though, in principle the sunlight is part-less. The original sunlight is nirguNaH (uncontaminated by the reflecting medium) while moon light that one sees is contaminated - saguna - due to the purity of the reflecting medium. One has to use Viveka to see the original sunlight while looking at the moon-light, since original sunlight is imperceptible.In essence moon is needed to recognize the sunlight where the moon is.

 Most importantly the original sunlight cannot be recognized unless it is reflected by some medium. While looking at the moon I have to recognize the original. Same way while looking at the mind or thoughts, I have to recognize the original consciousness that illumine the mind and thought via the mind. Hence it is called upahita chaitanya. Hence Kena says pratibodha viditam matam - Consciousness is revealed in every thought as it illumines every thought that arises in the mind. Since one can differentiate the original vs reflected light, I have to use Viveka to do that separation cognitively. 

Just my 2c in the discussion. 

Hari Om!
Sadananda