Question - Snake and the rope?

[Guest guest]

--- Vivekananda Centre <vivekananda

wrote:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

>

> Dear Sadanandji

>

> Technically this cannot be an answer -

.......

> Spiritual dialogue is great fun..... but we have to

> make sure

> it does not degenerate into mere mental gymnastics.

> jay : )

 

Greetings Jay and nice to hear from you.

 

There was a related discussion in Shankara Bhaashya

pertaining to the adhyaasa.

 

An objector questions (puurvapaksha) Shankara's

analogy of Snake and rope.

 

For one to mistake the rope as a snake - at least two

things have to be met. One is the saadR^isyam - some

similarities between the original object (that is

rope) and the superimposed object (snake) and second

which is more relavent to the question posed is

samskaara - prior knowledge of the snake for it to be

superimposed on the present rope. That is, one

should have prior knowledge of a real snake for him to

project on the real rope now. - whcih implies there

must be some real world or samsaara to project a false

one on to Brahamn.

 

Shankara refutes the argument. He agrees that

samskara has to be there that is prior knowledge of a

snake has to be there but that prior knowledge need

not be of real snake - it can be of false snake. One

can see for example a snake in a movie and which is

just a picture of a snake and not real a snake - but

that knowledge is enough to project that snake on to

the rope. For example one need not see a real ghost

(there may not be one) but still one can project a

false ghost on to a real post and get frightened by

that projection of false ghost on a real post!

 

In relavence to the question asked, Shankara says

there need not be real samsaara to project on Brahman

- but one can project previous knowledge of past

samsaara on to Brahman. When we did get the past

knowledge (samskaara) of the knowledge of false

samsaara - The answer of course is from previous life.

But for previous life what was the basis for that

projection - the answer is again the previous to

previous life. If you keep asking when was the

beginning for this - which is the question asked -

there is no beginning - it is anaadi - The samsaara

(which includes the karma) is beginningless, since

ignorance is beginningless. All ignorances have to be

beginningless. This is accepted by not only advaitic

masters but by all vedantic masters.

 

I agree with you that these sound like intellectual

gymnastics. But is it not what the questioner wanted!

Intellectual question seeking intellectual answer. It

is better than just saying there is no valid answer

for an invalid question. In the commentary on the

suutra - janmaadyasya yataH - Shankara establishes

that creation is cyclic and there can not he beginning

in a cyclic process.

 

I still remember with fond memories our meeting in

London just one year ago. My regards to your wife.

 

Hari OM!

Sadananda

 

 

 

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