[Advaita-l] What is the meaning of illusion (according to advaita, obviously)?

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

--- On Fri, 12/26/08, Suresh <mayavaadi at yahoo.com> wrote:

Suresh - PraNAms

Shree Shyam has explained in detail.  Shankara says whatever that is seen or perceived is mithyaa - translation as Illusion is not completely correct. 

That which remains the same in all periods of time is satyam.
That which has no locus for existence at any time is asatyam.
That which has seeming existence and hence experienced but does not remain the same is neither asat or sat - the world of plurality comes under that category - neither remains the same as it is continuously changing therefore is not sat and since it is experienced or perceived it is not asat - hence it is called mithyaa.  There is no illusion here. 

Ring, bangle, necklace etc are perceived and have attributes and their utilities differing from each other but the truth is there have name without  any ringly substance or bangly substance etc supporting them - they are nothing but gold alone - All the attributes of ring, bangle etc (ID, OD, etc) belong to name and form but not to gold. The substantive of ring, bangle, etc is gold that does not undergo any transformation in the apparent transformation of gold appearing as ring, bangle etc. Gold alone is real in comparison to names and forms of the products, ring, bangle - says scriptures - loham iti eva satyam - eva implies gold alone is real and not the attributive ring, bangle etc. They are only names without their own substantives - padam without padaartham - hence scripture calls this as vaachaarambhanam vikaaraH - only name sake they are objects - but in essence they are gold only. Hence in this relative example - ring, bangle, etc are not
 illusions but comes under mithyaa. 

The substantive of the world itself is Brahman says scripture - hence all the changing names and forms - all objects in the world - are mithyaa only - says Ch. Up. 

And you are that satyam - tat tvam asi - is the end of that teaching. That is not according to Advaita but according to Vedanta. Advaita is the essence of the Vedanta. 

Hope this helps.


Hari Om!
Sadananda