Weekly Definition : adhyAsa -- Reply to Veena Nair's questions

[Guest guest]

Namaste all.

 

Veena -ji has some questions. I shall try to answer them. I give my

answers, as well as my comments . I am not sure whether I have answered

her in full, because sometimes I don't seem to get the question right. For

purpose of clarity I have reproduced below Veena-ji's mail, and commented on

them step by step.

 

 

Veena: Regarding Profji's explanation:

I wish to check if I understood this term correctly:

1) in the dark when I mistake the rope for a snake, this is a 'common

error'. The snake in this case, seen/imagined for a fleeting moment is the

lowest order of reality, the 'illusory reality'.

2) I turn on the light and understand the rope for what it is--a rope. The

rope here is the experiential/empirical order of reality.

3) But Vedanta says that even the rope is not the real thing - there is a

third or the highest level of reality, the Transcendent absolute reality or

the Pure Consciousness..

 

VK: Upto this you are perfectly right.

 

 

Veena: .When I think of or see the rope as the one Absolute

reality, this is a 'metaphysical error' or 'adhyaasa'.

 

VK: I think your sentence construction confuses me. If you mean: "When I

think of or see the rope as the Ultimate Reality and there is nothing that

is more real than this, then this is the error", then you are right.

 

Veena: But at this point would it be okay to try and fit these 3 levels of

reality

to our world? And that is where I seem to get confused.

 

VK: Your "fitting three levels of reality to our world" is not very clear

to me

 

Veena: Is our perception of

the 'I' in us (the rope), as our mind-body (the snake) the lowest

level, Level 1?

 

VK: No. It is THE major error. It is the adhyAsa. We superimpose our

body-mind-intellect on the Self, and think that our body-mind-intellect is

the Self. This is the Error. Now I would like to comment on your so-called

"levels of perception"; but before that let us go to your next sentence

also.

 

Veena: Then is the world (or rather the perception that the world and I are

one)

the experiential order of reality? i.e. the understanding that all elements

and I are one because we are supported by the same substratum. This

understanding would be the second level Level2.

 

VK: Veena-ji, I feel you are going off at a tangent now and I don't know

how to correct your statements. So let me say it in my own way. There is

perception. Then there are orders of perception. Perceiving a reflection in

a mirror is perception alright. But cognising the fact that the perception

of that reflection is a temporary creation by the mirror intruding our

vision, is a higher level of perception. When the rope is mistaken as a

snake, there is a perception. But when knowledge comes, we know that that

perception was illusory and the right perception is that it is a rope.

Similarly we are told by the scriptures (as well as by great modern seers

like Ramana Maharishi) that when spiritual enlightenment happens, we will

recognise that all along our perception of the world as world was only a

temporary creation by the mirror of our Ignorance (avidyA) and that right

cognition will show the same world as Brahman, the transcendent reality.

 

Veena:..Then beyond this is the

understanding that I and the substratum or the Pure Consciousness or the

Absolute reality are also one and that is the highest level which leads to

liberation, Level 3. Is this correct?

 

VK The words "leads to" in the above are redundant. The highest level of

perception that you have yourself described, is liberation (Sanskrit:

mokSha).

 

 

Veena: Then the question is, is 'adhyaasa'

the error made in perceiving Level 2 as 'the end', as Level 3? Is it

possible that one could awaken to Level 2 (I_and_World_AreOne = the rope)

and mistake it for Level 3 (AbsoluteReality)? Profji's explanation seems to

suggest that this is the case. Please let me know if the above

interpretation is correct.

 

VK: I cannot to your parentheses above, which seem to

characterise Level 2 and Level 3. though I vaguely see what you mean. But

remember, "I", "The World" and "Absolute Reality" are not three distinct

things from the absolute point of view. However they are distinct in our

everyday parlance. To think that this everyday parlance is the ultimate

truth is the metaphysical error! To sum up: without your parentheses, you

seem to make sense. But I would not say it your way; because, your levels 1

and 2 (namely, illusory perception and common everyday perception) are not

much different. Both are illusory perceptions - this is the Vedantic

conclusion.

 

 

Veena: If this is correct, then it would mean that it

takes someone like the Buddha, starting at Level 1, to get to Level 3.

Krishna and Jesus were already at Level3 when they landed on earth! Someone

like Ramakrishna Paramhamsa was at level 2 and freely moved between Level 2

and 3 but lived at Level 2 for the benefit of the people.

 

VK: I have no comments. But I like your words: "freely moved between

....of the people".

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

 

 

For almost everything you wanted to know about Hindu philosophy, go to

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

For an English translation of Kanchi Mahaswamigal's Discourses on Advaita

Sadhana go to

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/VK2/Advaita_Saadhanaa.html

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "V. Krishnamurthy" <profvk wrote:

>

> Namaste all.

>

> Veena -ji has some questions. I shall try to answer them. I give my

> answers, as well as my comments . I am not sure whether I have

answered

> her in full, because sometimes I don't seem to get the question

right. For

> purpose of clarity I have reproduced below Veena-ji's mail, and

commented on

> them step by step.

 

Namaste,

 

Actually the is no snake or even a rope..........Tony