CTMU

[Sankaran Kartik Jayanarayanan]

On Mon, 24 Jul 2000, Anand Hudli wrote:

> On Sat, 22 Jul 2000 15:32:33 -0500, Sankaran Kartik Jayanarayanan
> <kartik at ECE.UTEXAS.EDU> wrote:
>

[..]

> >1) God = "Self-perceptual real universe"
> >2) Mind (i.e. the "cognitive syntax") = Reality
> >
> >It's all the more intriguing since he claims to have "proven" the above
> >propositions using logic alone, in contrast to advaita which needs shruti
> >:-)
>
>  No, that is not correct. In the final analysis, advaita says that God
>  is none other than the Self.

advaita says so by reliance upon shruti.

> And the Self does not have to be proved!
>  No one doubts "Do I exist or not?". So God exists!
>

I don't see how you can say that the Self is *infinite*.

The definition of God or Brahman is "Being with no limits." (from the
root "bR^iH" + "man"; or as the origin of the world, vide the second verse
of the brahma suutras). God is an infinite being.

The Self or Atman is defined as that which is referred to by the word 'I'.

To make an equation between the two, i.e, God = Self, you need shruti.
To paraphrase, to claim that the Self exists is one thing, but to claim
that it is infinite is something else.

>  If God is taken as different from the Self, then we run into the
>  problem that you (mistakenly) attribute to advaita. The realistic
>  schools have this problem with logically establishing God, but not
>  advaita.
>

Anyway, Vidya had posted on the subject of reliance upon shruti to make
the equation Atman = Brahman a while ago (sep 28, 1997, from the
archives):
--------------------
Those of us who have never
directly intuited the mystical Oneness can still refer to the scripture,
in order to make logical arguments. This is the only context in which the
vedas are said to be the only source which informs us of the Atman =
brahman equation.
--------------------

The "other context" according to vidya was the mystical realization of
Brahman itself, which is not what we're talking about.

[..]

> Anand
>

-Kartik

PS: There is also the equation of existence=consciousness, which I would
like to see proven, without the aid of the shruti.

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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