Acharya on the objects of the waking state

[Guest guest]

Dear Br. Vinayaka,

 

This is the kind of problem that arises when one tries to study the bhAshya

without the help of a teacher and goes literally by the words without

looking at the context.. Here the Acharya is refuting the Buddhist view that

perceptions in the waking state also take place as they do in the dream

state without any external object. According to this school of Buddhists

there are no external objects at all. Advaita does not accept this and holds

that there are external objects which have vyAvahArika reality. The AchArya

brings out this difference by pointing out that, while what a person sees in

one dream he can never see again, the objects of the waking state have a

certain permanency and a person can see the same object again and again

everyday. The word avasthA in the sentence quoted by you should not be given

the technical meaning of the three states. If the context and the other

sentences before and after this are kept in mind the meaning will be clear,

namely, that objects seen in the waking state do not disappear immediately

as objects in dream do. So there is a difference between the two states.

This has been further clarified by the Acharya by saying that one is only

remembrance while the other is perception. The Acharya gives a higher level

of reality to the waking state than to the dream state. The experiences in

waking have vyAvahArika reality while those in dream have only prAtibhAsika.

Of course both are mithyA.

 

S.N.Sastri

 

 

 

||jAgaritOpalabdham vastu na ksyAmchidapyavasthAyAm bAdhyatE||

 

" Those things, on the other hand, of which we are conscious in our

waking state, such as posts and the like, are 'never' negated in any

state "

 

What is he exactly conveying by this statement? Aren't waking

objects are negated in the dream and sushupti/samadhi state? Can

anybody elaborate this abstruse topic which is seemingly

contradicting the mAndUkya kArika(In my understanding/mis-

understanding?)? I am giving the full commentary along with the

sUtra for reference which is as under:

 

 

 

Br. Vinayaka