[Advaita-l] The nature of spiritual realisation

[Bhadraiah Mallampalli]

Dear Kartik

That was a good one from Sri Sankara.

Let us note that, while Sankara declared that consciousness is different 
from body, this reply seems to be tailor made for the question about the 
body. Acharya did not address the question whether the body really exists in 
the first place, what elements it is made of etc. If these questions are 
asked Acharya has other arguments waiting for the opponent.

IMO, for the purpose of this discussion self means individual atma, which 
perceives the body and organs. Some medical experiments done on people who 
lost organs confirm that the perception of lost organ is still not lost by 
the person. Vaidic brahmana texts also declare that organs like eyes, ears, 
hands etc are made of interactions of devas, and these interactions are the 
real cause of the body and organs, not any physical materials. Even the 
elements like fire, etc are ultimately caused by the devas at cosmic level, 
so self is every thing. Sorry for rushing the arguments.

By self if we mean supreme self, we need to fine tune the argument that this 
supreme self does not really get involved in activities like perception etc, 
but it is the devas like indra who really perceive, while self/brahman is 
merely the background.

Please suggest changes if I am wrong.

Best wishes,
Bhadraiah

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