Gaudapada's Karika

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

VP: vaitathya prakaraNa in the gauDapAda kArikA
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Allan Curry wrote:

>Part of the argument that follows says that the apparent world can be known
>to be unreal for two reasons:
>
>1. because it is perceived
>2. because it changes
>
>Why is reality equated with changelessness?  Why can't the world be a
>sequence of real but extremely fleeting occasions which follow each other
>in a meaningful way?

As I mentioned before, for this to happen there must be an unchanging quantity
to connect all these fleeting occasions.

The logic of the VP goes something as follows:

1. That dreams are unreal (from the view point of the waking state) is known by
logic and shruti.

2. There is no meaningful way of distinguishing the waking state and dream
state. This can be established by means of logic (VP) and shruti (mANDUkya,
bR^ihadAraNyaka, kaivalya, nR^isimha pUrva tApanIya)

3. perception and change is common to both states and the apparent world is
hence _not more real than the dream world_.

It is not held as an axiom that reality should be unchanging and unmanifest,
rather it is found out along the way that things which change are unreal. Things
which change and are perceived in the empirical world cannot be distinguished
meaningfully from things which change and are perceived in the dreams, which
are unreal. This is of course from the standpoint of logic. shruti also
declares, "there is no change", avyakta etc. This is explained in detail in the
VP and the bhAshhya.

>If perception and change can be depended on as a proof of the unreality of
>the world, how can we avoid the inference that perception and change

See above.

>themselves must be real?  If we do accept the reality of perception and

We don't, with the straight-forward counter-example being the state of
deep-sleep,

>change do we therefore become "qualified non-dualists" in the process?

hence, we remain non-dualists :-).

Ramakrishnan.