[Advaita-l] Locus of avidyA

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- Ravisankar Mayavaram <abhayambika at gmail.com> wrote:

[..]

> Ramanuja knocks the foundation of advaita-vedAnta in SrI bhAShya
> taking up this issue. Please see
> http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/sbe48/sbe48028.htm
> 

Instead of feeling "holier-than-thou" by dissing advaita on the topic
of avidyA, it is better to ask the other schools:

"How does the conscious self link to the unconscious body?"

Now that consciousness has entered the realm of serious scientific
enquiry, it is becoming clear that science has no theory of
consciousness. Two Nobel laureates, Steven Weinberg and Sir Francis
Crick, have expressed their concern on this matter, and it is
noteworthy that theirs cannot be a religious concern, for they are
both atheists.

It is interesting that Sankara in his commentary on the Brahma sUtra
3.3.54 (Ramanuja takes it to be 3.3.52) gives almost the same
arguments that are presently circulating in scientific academia that
prove that consciousness cannot be derived from the body. Sankara's
anticipation of all the problems inherent in scientific theories of
consciousness is a work of breathtaking genius, whereas Ramanuja in
his commentary on that verse comes across as an innocent child.

I've been planning to post something on the parallels between
Sankara's commentary and the "modern" arguments that prove that
consciousness cannot be physical, but I'm having some difficulty
locating the sub-commentaries on Sankara. It will have to wait for
sometime.

Regards,
Kartik


 
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