[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Fwd: World is mind alone: Shankara

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Subbu ji.

Thanks for the write-up.

There are two views regarding the material cause of dream. First view,
which is more common sense, is to have mind as the upAdAna of dream. And
second, where avidyA itself is the upAdAna. In the first view, the
adhishThAna of dream is sAkshi-chaitanya whereas in the second, it is
Brahman which is the adhishThAna of dream. Sanskrit VichAra Sagara, on page
206 says - स्वाप्न-पदार्थानाम्-उपादानम्-अन्तःकरणम्, अथवा साक्षात् अविद्या
एव।  आद्यपक्षे साक्षिचैतन्यं स्वप्नाधिष्ठानम्। द्वितीयपक्षे ब्रह्मचैतन्यं
स्वप्नाधिष्ठानम्।

Since dream and waking have identical properties in DSV, these two
approaches are valid even within DSV. So, one view of DSV accepts
waking-world with mind as the upAdAna, whereas the other view has directly
avidyA as the upAdAna.

*First view:*

"सर्वं ह्यन्तःकरणविकारमेव जगत्", "अतो मनोविकल्पनामात्रं द्वैतमिति सिद्धम्",
"तेन हि मनसा विकल्प्यमानेन दृश्यं मनोदृश्यम् इदं द्वैतं सर्वं मन इति
प्रतिज्ञा" - these statements appear to be within the framework of first
option.

*Second view:*

"घटादिस्थानीयास्तु देहादिसङ्घाताः स्वप्नदृश्यदेहादिवन्मायाविकृतदेहादिवच्च
आत्ममायाविसर्जिताः, आत्मनो माया अविद्या, तया प्रत्युपस्थापिताः" - this
appears to be within the second framework.

It appears to me that this distinction is merely with respect to
शङ्का-परिहार-सौकर्य. The fundamental features of DSV namely "(a)
prAtibhAsika-sattA of entire seen (b) eka-jIva (c) ajnAta-sattA-abhAva of
seen (d) sAkshi-bhAsyatva of entire seen" are common to both.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.