[Advaita-l] What If Time Is an Illusion?

[Ravi Kiran]

Namaste Sri Bhaskar ji

On Mon, Mar 11, 2019 at 3:58 PM Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

>
>
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> Yes, interesting point and anubhavAtmaka fact as well.  If the waker’s
> mind is active in sushupti ( deep sleep) then sushupti anubhava would
> differ from individual to individual just like in waking and dream states
> where we have different experiences.  But interestingly when someone says
> :  yesterday night I had a sound sleep, nobody would ask the counter
> question what that experience is !! ??  The sukha-nidde ( dreamless sound
> sleep) anubhava is ONE and SAME for all.  Hence as soon as some one shares
> his experience of deep sleep we straightaway come to know what would be the
> ‘experience’ of that sound sleep.  This will not be the case when someone
> says :  I had a dream in my sleep, yesterday, why because karaNa (upAdhi)
> belongs to individual is different there hence we have to ask about the
> particulars of that dream state experienced only by that individual and
> same is the case in waking state.  The eka-rUpa anubhava in sushupti for
> everyone is because there is neither objects nor the indriya-s exist
> differently from oneself clarifies bhAshyakAra in bruhadAraNyaka.
>

True .. by going through bhAshya alone, it is not clear how one can posit
avidyA vRttis in sushupti as appropriate .. It will be interesting to know,
in any of the bhAshya texts, if there is discussion of avidyA vRittis in
sushupti and explained in the context of Sruti ?

In the absence of which, can we safely say - the mention of such by later
Acharyas, as different prakriyas ?

In BrihadAranyaka, the bhAshya clearly says ..

that the self is by nature eternal, free, enlightened and pure...the self
becomes such only in the state of deep sleep: ‘That is his form—beyond
desires (Aticchandā), free from evils, and fearless’ (IV. iii. 21).  the
form of the self that is directly perceived in the state of deep sleep is
free from ignorance, desire and work. As it is such, i.e. unique, the self
desires to enter this state.

this infinite being (self), fully embraced by the Supreme Self, not know
anything at all,
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120049.html#page-661>either
external or internal. That is his form—in which all objects of desire have
been attained and are but the self, and which is free from desires and
devoid of grief.

If the self remains.intact in its own form in the state of deep sleep, why
does it not know itself as ‘I am this,’ or know all those things that are
outside, as it does *in* the waking and dream states? Unity is the
reason.  there
being no such division among the factors of an action as knowledge and
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120049.html#page-664>known,
whence should particular consciousness arise, or desire manifest itself, in
the natural, immutable light of the self?

there is nothing else but the self. How? Because all objects of desire *are
but the self* in this form since there is no ignorance to project the idea
of difference. In states other than that of deep sleep, i.e. in the waking
and dream states, things are separated, as it were, from the self and are
desired as such.

अत्र पितापिता भवति, मातामाता, लोका अलोकाः, देवा अदेवाः, वेदा अवेदाः ।

That it does not see in that state is because, although seeing then, it
does not see; for the vision of the witness can never be lost,
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120049.html#page-673>because
it is immortal. But there is not that second thing separate from it which
it can see.

Those things that caused the particular visions (of the waking and dream
states), viz. the mind- (with the self behind it), the eyes, and forms,
were all presented by ignorance as something different from the self. They
are now unified in the state of deep sleep, as the individual self has been
embraced by the Supreme Self,  hence it knows no particulars. Only when the
self is under limitations, do the organs stand as something different to,
help it to particular experiences.

सलिल एको द्रष्टाद्वैतो भवति  - It becomes (transparent) like water, one,
the witness, and without a second. This is the world (state) of Brahman,
...: This is its supreme attainment, this is its supreme glory, this is its
highest world, this is its supreme bliss. On a particle of this very bliss
other beings live.

In deep sleep the self, bereft of its limiting adjuncts, the body and
organs, remains in its own supreme light of the Ātman, free from all
relations,
That which is infinite is bliss’ (Ch. VII. xxiii. 1) . On
<https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc120049.html#page-685>*a
particle of this very bliss*, put forward by ignorance, and perceived only
during the contact of the organs with their objects, *other beings live.* Who
are they? Those that have been separated from that bliss by ignorance, and
are considered different from Brahman

When there is duality, as it were, then one sees something,’ etc. (II. iv.
14; IV. v. 15)

But when to the knower of Brahman everything has become the self, then what
should one see and through what?

Also, in waking state, if it is ignorance that causes this relative
existence through those extraneous limiting adjuncts, is that ignorance
natural to him, or is it adventitious, like desire, work, etc? If it is the
latter, then liberation is possible  (4.3.19 - Brih. bhAshya)

ignorance is not a natural characteristic of the self, for that which is
natural to a thing can never be eliminated, as the heat and light of the
sun. Therefore liberation from ignorance is possible. ( 4.3.20 - Brih.
bhAshya)


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> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
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> bhaskar
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