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

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sada prabhuji
Hare Krishna


  *   Surprisingly, your ‘laddu’ example further confirms how waker mind is biased when interpreting and adjudging the ‘experience’ in sushupti


I was sitting alone in a dark room - perhaps meditating! My wife brought a plate full of laddus and left it in the room - perhaps to store it there. When she came back after a couple of hours, I was there and the room was still dark but there are no more laddus in the plate. She started accusing me that I ate all that Laddus. I told her how can say that I ate all the laddus - She said -you were alone were there and no one else seems to have come and gone and now there are no more laddus in the plate. You must have eaten all the laddus (without leaving for anybody). This is called the inferential experience of eating laddus.

The fact is if my stomach is so fulfilled that I cannot eat any more proves that it is not just inferential eating but actual eating and enjoying that Laddu. If I still longing for food with an empty stomach, then it is only inferential eating and not factual eating.


  *   First of all we should know that when we are speaking about the sushupti, we are talking about the state in which karaNa & vishaya both are absent or in upashAnta sthiti.  SushuptAtman’s Ananda cannot be compared with vishaya sukha since vishaya and upAdhi both are subdued in this state.  The Ananda we experience in sushupti is atighnee i.e. which shall destroy grief totally and it is as Sri Ravi Kiran prabhuji quoted : aticchanda..free from desire and free from puNya and pApa as well apahatapApmA.  And all these upakaraNa rahita (sarvOpAdhi vinirmukta) anubhava is because of ‘ekatvaM’ that exists in sushupti.  Not knowing anything in sushupti not due to akhandAkAra avidyA vrutti it is because of pUrNatvaM and ekatvaM.  Hence it is tangible to say the happinesss that is experienced in sushupti is not the result of an interaction with ‘external object’ (eating laddu-s and getting satisfaction) by some upAdhi.

Same way, when I get up from a deep sleep and say I slept very well and ready to act with all the energy, that recollection in the waking state is not inferential but experiential.


Ø     As I said above we don’t have any qualms with regard to Ananda being experienced in sushupti the problem arises only when waker mind recollects it and interprets it as if that itself exists in that state.  Making the assumptions about deep sleep state  and making the inferential statement like happiness has the connection with objects just like in waking state is the biased view points on sushupti by waking mind.  Vishwa (the waking mind) does not have the eligibility to enter sushuptAvasta.  To interpret the sushupti the right source of material (pramANa) is Shruti.  And the Shruti says Ananda experienced in sushupti is NOT vishaya sukha but paramANanda.  One’s svarUpa mentioned here is the one determined by the fact that he is totally free from all upAdhi-s or not with upAdhi as in jAgrat and svapna.

It is as simple as that.

When I was giving this example in my class, people thought that I like laddus and some started bringing it. I have to change the example to Rasamalai to make it point!


Ø     I too like rasamalai prabhuji, tomato soup, rasamalai, masala pApad, baby corn manchury will also my starters whenever there is north Indian menu for the lunch 😊

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar