[Advaita-l] analogy

[V Subrahmanian]

Thank you Kaushik for this very novel analogy; it fits the Vedant view of
vyavaharika and paramarthika realities. I am reminded of the river and
ocean identity taught in the Chandogya Upanishad as part of the the
teaching of the Truth. The rivers have distinct names but then once they
merge with the ocean, the names and forms that form their distinct
identities are no longer there. So the Upanishad teaches that the rivers
have their origin that is their source in the ocean and finally end up as
non different from the ocean upon merging with the source. Thus while the
difference or duality is only and appearance, the truth is the nondual.

Regards

On Sat, 24 Jul 2021, 12:53 pm Kaushik Chevendra via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Here is a small analogy that had come up in my mind with regards to the
> different states of reality-
>
> With respect to us,when we are on land, there appear to be many seas and
> oceans. It's evident from the fact that there is a water body in
> kanyakumari and another waterbody on the beach of vizag.  Also another
> water body located near another country. The sea water appears to be salty
> where as the ocean water seems to be fresh. It's only logical to assume
> these are different from each other.
> Yet, when seen from the standpoint of space, these all waterbodies are just
> one. The don't even have any parts or division and all are one huge
> waterbody. The duality of it is only visible from the standpoint of land.
> In the same way there is duality seen from the vyavaharika view point, but
> from the standpoint of paramarthika it's only one.
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