False Notions

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Extract from Swamy Yogananda Saraswati's

article in Tattvaloka as delivered by Ram

Chandran:

 

"False Notions

In fact, all the activities in the

relative world rest on these false

notions-that is, on the mixing up of the

true with the false. This is the

confusion between the nature of the Self,

which is Pure Consciousness, and that of

the non-Self, which is perishable matter.

So superimposition (adhyasa or adhyaropa)

is misleading appearance, in the form of

memory, of a thing already perceived

somewhere, but in a place where there is

something yet altogether different. It is

the appearance in something of

characteristics which are alien to that

thing, just like the appearance of silver

in the mother of pearl or the appearance

of two moons under an optical illusion.

 

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Namaste All,

 

"As long as we are perceiving the world,

as long as the apparatus of perception is

intact or in other words as long as we

are alive this superimposition will be

going on. I submit that the removal of

superimposition is done through insight.

We must understand that superimposition

could not occur in the first place unless

everything were the self.

>From Brh.Up trans Madhavananda Swami.

Advaita Asrama publ.) Brh.Up.II.iv.6

 

"Worlds oust one who knows them as

different from the Self. The gods oust

one who knows them as different from the

Self. Brahman ousts one who knows them as

different from the Self. All ousts one

who knows it as different from the Self.

This Brahmana, this Ksatriya, these

worlds, these gods, these beings, and all

this are this Self."

 

Commentary by Shankara:Objection: How can

the knowledge of one thing lead to that

of another. ((My understanding - The

objector makes the common sense point viz.

how can ordinary knowledge lead to such a

cosmic claim?))

 

Reply: The objection is not valid, for

there is nothing beside the Self. If

there were, it would not be known, but

there is no such thing; the Self is

everything.

 

My understanding: Perception or sensing

or knowledge of the world takes place via

the mechanism of superimposition.

Superimposition takes place because there

is some basis of similarity. How, it may

be asked, does this analogy apply to

knowledge generally? Where is the

sameness that would allow a mix-up

between the Knower and the Known?

Shankara's reply is that the very basis

for knowability lies in the fact that

both are limiting adjuncts of the same

Pure Consciousness/Self. Unless that were

the case things could not be known. ("If

there were, it would not be known, but

there is no such thing, the Self is

everything.)

 

How is superimposition removed? In the

commentary on Brh.Up. II.iv.10 Shankara

states: "Name and form are the limiting

adjuncts of the Supreme Self, of which,

when they are differentiated, it is

impossible to tell whether they are

identical with or different from It, as is

the case with the foam of water. It is

name and form in all their stages that

constitute relative existence."

 

The approach to removal must be

multivalent. Rumination on 'What is the

nature of things such that I can know them

// Must what can be known be of the

nature of knowledge?// Who am I?// Thus

meditating on unity brings changes in the

interaction with the others in one's life:

a benign circle is commenced. Name and

form is transcended even whilst name and

form is experienced. The ultimate

resolution is through insight.

 

Commentary on Brh.Up. II.iv.11: "When,

through these sucessive steps, ((seeing

all as mere limiting adjuncts/name and

form)) sound and the rest, together with

their recieving organs, are merged in Pure

Intelligence, there are no more limiting

adjuncts and only Brahman, which is Pure

Intelligence, comparable to a lump of

salt, homogeneous, infinite, boundless

and without a break, remains. Therefore

the Self alone must be regarded as one

without a second."

 

Best wishes, Michael.