[Advaita-l] mAnDUkya series

[Annapureddy Siddhartha Reddy]

Namaskaaram Sadananda gaaru,
       Thanks for the elaborate reply. These are a few more things
that I am unclear about, could you please clarify them. Thanks.

-- Just to make sure I understood you correctly, there is no physical
organ (or a metaphysical entity like the soul etc.) that perceives the
unity of everything. It's more a conviction in the mind of the unity
of everything. To take the Sunrise example, there is not really a
physical/metaphysical organ that can "see" that there is no Sunrise,
but it's a conviction in the mind due to the inference that there is
no Sunrise per se. Given this situation, the only way we can assert
the unity of everything is through vEda pramANa.
(For example, the budhda who does not believe in vEda praMaNa would
say that destruction of this ahaMkAra is what is required -- the
annihilation of desires which form the cause of rebirths. Any
assertion of the unity of everything or a single substratum underlying
everything becomes a matter of pure speculation with Him.)

-- I understood why the question of sajAti and vijAti bhedas do not
arise in the case of
brahma, but I am not clear why there could not be svagata bhedas, ala
vishiShTAdvaita vEdAnta. But I guess you will get to this when you
discuss turIya.

These questions are more vis-a-vis classical advaita.

-- Given that the conviction of the mind is what is required, I do not
understand the
insistence of shaMkara on saMnyAsa. For example, shrI rAma or shrI
kR^iShNa or rAjA janaka were all considered to be realized. Or is it
the case that I misunderstood shaMkara's ideas on saMnyAsa?

-- If we accept that "liberation" is essentially a conviction of the
mind, then all the
elaborate theories of karma, the movement of the souls through pitR^i
lOka, dEva lOka, lack of vEda adhikAra for the shUdras etc., all of
which form part of shaMkara's exegesis on brahma sUtras, become
irrelevant. They seem to be important only because the vEdas declare
that to be the case. For example, to take up the theory of karma,
having such a theory would enhance moral behaviour amongst humans. If
people were to take the lOkAyata approach of thinking this life to be
the only one, they might not shirk from perpetrating immoral things if
it gives them pleasure. Thus, this theory of karma seems more a
mechanism for promoting moral behaviour than any higher truth (Of
course, I am not denying reincarnation, esp. given some scientific
basis for that).

A.Siddhartha.