Real and unreal

[Guest guest]

Respected Bhagavatha,

In my previous mail i had written

about the above states from the point of view of

Svarupa gnanam and Dharma-bhuta gnanam of jiva atman.

There i had briefly mentioned about the object of

consciousness in dream and waking state.Now,the topic

seems to have shifted to the terms real and unreal and

its relevance in the philosophy of Sri Ramanuja.Let me

try to present my understanding of the same.

 

According to visista-advaita,there are three

realities,which are Isvara(brahman),jiva and prakriti.

The latter two are inseperable from the Isvara(except

for the purpose of analysis of their true nature) and

form the body or modes of Isvara.

 

Now,all the three are "real" in the sense that their

true nature in the aspects of both svarupa and

guna(attribute) are eternal(indestructible) and

reality of one type cannot become either of the other

two i.e jiva cannot become isvara tattva or prakriti

tattva(except ofcourse by ignorance),though there are

modifications of jiva(at Dharmabhuta gnana level

during bondage) and prakriti(both at substance and

attribute level) in themselves.

 

Even,shankaracharya in his vivekachudamani defines

real in the above sense.

The term "unreal" is applied to all kinds of mistaken

notions about the three basic realities(which is the

case in bondage),which ultimatley is proved false by

the understanding of their true nature(as in the case

of moksha).

 

In the state of bondage due to karma, the jiva is not

aware of its true nature and imagines itself as either

prakriti(body) or Isvara.The true nature of

realities are understood partially by the jiva atman

leading to ahamkara and misapprehensions of the

realities as in the rope-snake case.Such wrong

identification and corresponding values of desirable

and undesirable is the root cause of all the

experiences of fleeting pleasure and pain in the

waking and dream state and is also a fitness of the

jiva to experience its karma, the fruit of which is

given by the Lord by creating appropriate

circumstances in waking and dream states.

 

In short,the experience of bondage on the part of jiva

is a fact as long as it is not aware of the three

realities in the true sense or as long as it persists

in the realm of unreal.

 

In the state of release from karma,the attributive

consciousness is not obscured and the Jiva is awake to

its own true nature and the true nature of the other

two realities.

 

 

I hope the above analysis satisfies the doubts of

Sri.chandrashekaran in a broader sense.

 

Sri Krishnaarpanamasthu

Suresh B.N.

 

 

 

 

Send online invitations with Invites.

http://invites.