[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Karika bh 3.27 'Atman is born only seemingly as the world'

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste Subbu ji.


The Upanishad teaches that the Atman/Brahman is never an object for
> comprehension/perception.
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I somehow feel that such a statement is often misunderstood and prevents us
from seeing the nearness of Atman. It is everywhere. It is in-built in all
our perceptions. It pervades all experiences.

When we say pot-is, cloth-is, there is a perception of is-ness which is
nothing but Brahman. The is-ness does not belong to pot. It belongs to
Brahman. Hence, is-ness is indeed an object of comprehension and
perception. That is why Brahman is said to be sarva-indriya-grAhya and
sarva-pratyaya-vedya. (Not having rUpa, rasa, shabda are not hindrance in
perception of Brahman because these are hindrance only for those entities
which are niyata-indriya-grAhya. Brahman, which is sarva-indriya-grAhya,
can be perceived by all indriyAs.)

This is the sum and substance of eka-sattA-vAda wherein pratyaksha is
san-mAtra-grAhI and no other entity is accepted to have any sort of
existence. I feel that it is extremely important in a meditative living.
Our day to day perception of table and cloth etc involve perception of
san-mAtra. We just have to do us our attention is-ness.

Objection: Are you saying that shuddha Brahman is the vishaya of the
perception "pot is"?

Answer: No. Shuddha Brahman is covered by mUla-ajnAna. That covering is
removed only with Brahma-jnAna. So, it is only pot-tAdAtmya-Apanna-Brahman
which is the vishaya of perception. And this pot-tAdAtmya is born along
with the birth of pot. Just as when illusory silver is born, idam-tAdAtmya
is also born. Similarly, with the birth of pot, sat-tAdAtmya (pot-tAdAtmya
with sat is also known as sat-tAdAtmya) is also born.

Thus, while shuddha Brahman is not a vishaya of chAkshusha-pratyaksha,
pot-tAdAtmya-Apanna-Brahman is indeed a vishaya of chAkshusha-pratyaksha.

Here, the mechanism is as under. While Ananda is covered by mUla-ajnAna,
sat and chit are covered not by mUla-ajnAna but only by avasthA-ajnAna. So,
due to pramANa-vritti, there is nAsha of avasthA-ajnAna, and
ArOpya-tAdAtmya-Apanna-sat is revealed. Thus, pot-avachchhinna-chaitanya is
covered by asattva-ApAdaka-ajnAna, abhAna-ApAdaka-ajnAna and
anAnanda-ApAdaka-ajnAna. When there is nAsha or abhibhava of these, there
is perception of ArOpya-tAdAtmya-Apanna-sat.

Thus, Ananta Krishna Shastri ji says in Advaita Siddhi, page 322 - [एवं च
घटाद्यवच्छेदेन ब्रह्मणःचाक्षुषतावादॊ युक्त एव]

This attitude turns out daily experience of table and cloth in meditative
living wherein our attention is centred on is-ness and not on pot and
cloth. And we can feel the nearness and directness of sat and chit.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.

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