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Advaita

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The three main ontological terms

•Jiva is atman limited or individuated by theupadhies

JIVA ATMAN BRAHMAN

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Jiva

• The psychophysical organism • Empirical self or ego • Many in number • Anthakarana or Internal organ

is the adjunct of atman • A construction of maya or

avidya • Jiva is atman limited by avidya • Knower, enjoyer and active

agent • Acquires merits and demerits • Subject to transmigration • Lives an embodied life• Subject to causality

• Capable of bondage andliberation

• Mortality is attributed to it owingto its actions motivated bydesires due to avidya

• Not an ontological reality • An imaginary construction of

the adjunct buddhi • No existence apart from the

buddhi which is theindividuating principle.

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Atman

• The universal self • Identical with

Brahman •

Atman istranscendental • The supreme reality • Can never deny its

existence

• Even its denial assertsits existence

• Atman limited by thebody and theupadhies is the jiva

•Jiva is empirical andphenomenal

• Basically false

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Atman

• Is self-proved – svayamsiddha

• Cannot be proved by themeans of valid

knowledge which cannotfunction without it

• Foundation of allpramanas

• The witness of allcognitions and mentalmodes which are not self-luminous

• Pure • Neither subject nor object • Nature of pure

consciousness • Neither enjoyer, nor

agent • passive

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Iswara

• Iswara is determinate Brahman • Brahman conditioned by maya • Phenomenal appearance •

Creator, preserver and destroyer of the world

• Inner self of all • Moral governor: karmadhyaksha • Is gracious towards the devotee •

Formless, but assumes different forms

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God and His creation

• God (Isvara) created the world as a mere sport • In the sense in which the world exists, and we all exist

as separate individuals, we can affirm the existence ofIsvara, as engaged in creating and maintaining the

world. from the true point of view there is no Isvara whocreates the world

• But in reality all creation is Maya and so the creator alsois because of Maya

• Brahman, the self, is at once the material cause(upddana-karana) as well as the efficient cause (nimitta- karana) of the world.

• All creation is illusory maya.

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Brahman

• Ground of the entire univewrse

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• pure self as pure being, pure intelligenceand pure bliss was the ultimate truth

• the world as it appears could not be real.

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Experience and error

• All experience starts and moves in an error whichidentifies the self with the body, the senses, or objects ofthe senses

• Without this illusiory identification pure self can never

behave as a phenomenal knower or perceiver • Without such a perceiver there would not be cognitive

act • Our experience is always based upon an identification of

the self with the body, the senses, etc. and theimposition of all phenomenal qualities of pleasure, pain,etc. upon the self

• This is a beginningless illusion.

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Existence of Brahman

1.The world must have been produced as themodification of something, but in the Upanisadsall other things have been spoken of as having

been originated from something other thanBrahman so Brahman is the cause from whichthe world has sprung into being, but we could notthink that Brahman itself originated from

something else, for then we should have aregressus ad infinitum (anavastha).

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Existence of Brahman

1.The world is so orderly that it could not havecome forth from a non-intelligent source. Theintelligent source then from which this world has

come into being is Brahman.

2.This Brahman is the immediate consciousness(saksi) which shines as the self, as well asthrough the objects of cognition which the self

knows. It is thus the essence of us all, the self,and hence it remains undenied even when onetries to deny it, for even in the denial it showsitself forth. It is the self of us all and is hence

ever present to us in all our cognitions.

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Illusion

• An illusion cannot last when the truth is known • What is truth is known to us, but what is illusion is undemonstrable,

unspeakable, and indefinite.• The illusion runs on from beginningless time • We do not know how it is related to truth, the Brahman • We know that when the truth is once known the false knowledge of

this world-appearance disappears once for all • No intermediate link is necessary to effect it, no mechanical

dissociation of buddhi or manas, but just as by finding out theglittering piece to be a conch-shell the illusory perception of silver isdestroyed, so this illusory perception of world-appearance is also

destroyed by a true knowledge of the reality, the Brahman.

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The real

• The real is known to us as that which is provedby the pramanas, and which will never again befalsified by later experience or other means ofproof.

• A thing is said to be true only so long as it is notcontradicted

• At the dawn of right knowledge this world-

appearance will be found to be false and non-existing • Hence it cannot be regarded as real.

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World after enlightenment

In other systems• The world would continue as it is

even after emancipation that therewas nothing illusory in it

• But no knowledge of it is possible

because of the absence of theinstruments by the processes ofwhich knowledge was generated.

• The Samkhya purusa cannot knowthe world when the buddhi-stuff isdissociated from it and merged in

the prakrti,• The Mimamsa and the Nyaya soul

is also incapable of knowing theworld after emancipation, as it isthen dissociated from manas.

Vedanta • We cannot know the world, for

when the right knowledge dawns,the perception of this world-appearance proves itself to be

false to the person who haswitnessed the truth, the Brahman.

• An illusion cannot last when thetruth is known

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How maya becomes associated withBrahman?

• This question is illegitimate • This association did not begin in time either with

reference to the cosmos or with reference toindividual persons.

• There is no real association, for the creation ofillusion does not affect the unchangeable truth.

• Maya or illusion is no real entity, it is only falseknowledge (avidya) that makes the appearance,which vanishes when the reality is grasped andfound.

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Maya or avidya

• Maya or avidya has an apparent existenceonly so long as it lasts, but the momentthe truth is known it is dissolved.

• It is not a real entity in association withwhich a real world-appearance has beenbrought into permanent existence, for it

only has existence so long as we aredeluded by it (pratitika-satta)

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Maya or avidya

• A category which baffles the ordinary logical division of existence andnon-existence and the principle of excluded middle.

• Maya can neither be said to be "is" nor "is not" ( tattvanyatvabhyam anirvacaniya ).

• It cannot be said that such a logical category does not exist, for all

our dream and illusory cognitions demonstrate it to us.• They exist as they are perceived, but they do not exist since they

have no other independent existence than the fact of theirperception.

• If it has any creative function, that function is as illusive as its ownnature, for the creation only lasts so long as the error lasts.

• Brahman, the truth, is not in any way sullied or affected byassociation with maya, for there can be no association of the realwith the empty, the maya, the illusory.

• It is no real association but a mere appearance.

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World is false•

It is neither sat "is" nor asat "is not."• Here the opposition of the "is" and "is not" is solved bythe category of time.

• The world-appearance is "is not," since it does notcontinue to manifest itself in all times, and has its

manifestation up to the moment that the right knowledgedawns.

• It is not therefore "is not" in the sense that a "castle inthe air" or a hare's horn is "is not," for these are calledtuccha, the absolutely non-existent.

• The world-appearance is said to be "is" or existing, sinceit appears to be so for the time the state of ignorancepersists in us.

• Since it exists for a time it is sat (is), but since it does not

exist for all times it is asat (is not).

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Illusory perception

• Yet when the reality is once rightlycomprehended, it will be manifest that the worldnever existed, does not exist, and will never existagain.

• When once the truth is found out that it is aconch-shell, we say that the silver, though itappeared at the time of illusory perception to bewhat we saw before us as "this" (this is silver),yet it never existed before, does not now exist,and will never exist again.

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Illusory perception

• In the case of the illusory perception of silver, theshell appeared as silver

• In the case of the world-appearance, it is thebeing (sat), the Brahman, that appears as theworld

• As in the case when the “silver” before us is

found to be a piece of conch-shell, the silver is atonce dismissed as having had no existence inthe "this" before us

• So when the Brahman, the being, the reality, isonce directly realized, the conviction comes thatthe world never existed.

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Negation of world-appearance

• The negation of the world-appearance hasno separate existence other than thecomprehension of the identity of the real.

• The fact that the real is realized is thesame as that the world-appearance isnegated.

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Negation

• The negation refers both to the thing negated (the world-appearance) and the negation itself

• The negation needs to be false, for if the negation is notfalse then it remains as an entity different from Brahman

and hence the unqualified monism fails• Negation of the world-appearance is as much false as

the world-appearance itself• The negation is also a manifestation of world-

appearance

• The only thing left is the realized identity of the truth, thebeing.

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Negation

• The world-appearance is a whole and in referringto it the negation refers also to itself as a part ofthe world-appearance and hence not only is thepositive world-appearance false, but thefalsehood itself is also false

• When the world-appearance is contradicted atthe dawn of right knowledge, the falsehood itselfis also contradicted.

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Brahman

• Brahman differs from all other things in this that it is self-luminous(svaprakdsa) and has no form

• It cannot therefore be the object of any other consciousness thatgrasps it.

• We cannot objectify it • Brahman is not an object • All other things, ideas, emotions, etc., in contrast to it are called drsya

(objects of consciousness), while it is the drasta (the pureconsciousness comprehending all objects).

• As soon as anything is comprehended as an expression of a mentalstate (vrtti), it is said to have a form and it becomes drsya

• This is the characteristic of all objects of consciousness that theycannot reveal themselves apart from being manifested as objects ofconsciousness through a mental state

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Brahman

• Brahman also, so long as it is understood as a meaning of theUpanisad text, is not in its true nature

• It is only when it shines forth as apart from the associations of anyform that it is svaprakasa and drasta.

• The knowledge of the pure Brahman is devoid of any form or mode.

• The notion of drsyatva (objectivity) carries with it also the notion of jadatva (materiality) or its nature as non-consciousness (ajnanatva)and non-selfness (anatmatva) which consists in the want of self-luminosity of objects of consciousness.

• The relation of consciousness (jnana) to its objects cannot beregarded as real but as mere illusory impositions

• It is not possible to determine the relation between knowledge and itsforms.

• Just as the silver-appearance of the conch-shell is not its own naturalappearance, so the forms in which consciousness shows itself arenot its own natural essence.

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Brahman is ananda

• In the state of emancipation whensupreme bliss (ananda) shines forth

• Ananda is not an object or form of the

illuminating consciousness, but it is theillumination itself.

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Consciousness and form

• Whenever there is a form associated withconsciousness, it is an extraneous illusoryimposition on the pure consciousness.

• These forms are different from the essence ofconsciousness

• They depend on consciousness for theirexpression and are themselves objects ofconsciousness

• They are all finite determinations (paricchinna),whereas consciousness, the abiding essence, iseverywhere present without any limitwhatsoever.

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Reality

• The notion of reality cannot be derivedfrom the senses

• Nor can it be defined as that which is the

content of right knowledge, for we cannothave any conception of right knowledgewithout a conception of reality, and noconception of reality without a conceptionof right knowledge.

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Reality

• The conception of reality comprehends within itthe notions of unalterability, absoluteness, andindependence

• This cannot be experienced, as this gives onlyan appearance but cannot certify its truth.

• The true reality in all our experience is the oneself-luminous flash of consciousness which is allthrough identical with itself in all itsmanifestations of appearance

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Reality

• What really persists in all experience is the being(sat) and not its forms.

• This being that is associated with all ourexperience is not a universal genus nor merelythe individual appearance of the moment, but it isthe being, the truth which forms the substratumof all objective events and appearances

• Being is thus said to be the basis (adhisthana)on which the illusions appear.

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