[Advaita-l] Knowledge and the Means of Knowledge - 20

[Krishnamurthy Ramakrishna]

Sri Sunil Kumar,
Your understanding of Mithya appears to need some reinforcement.
First of all Brahman is beyond satva also. Satva also binds jiva
To the samsara - sukha sangEna badhnAti jnyAnasangEna cha anagha (gIta
14-6).
Now coming to Mithya, vEdAnta defines three orders of reality
1) sat or Real - exists always without change; It existed yesterday,
it exists today, and it exists tomorrow (trikAlEpi tiShTati iti sat)-
Examples are the clay in the pot, gold in the ornament etc. (If the pot is
broken or the ornament is melted, clay or gold is unaffected); The ultimate
reality is Brahman. Brahma satyam
2) Asat or unreal - Non-existent; it did not exist yesterday, it does not
exist today, it will not exist tomorrow - examples given are the son of a
barren woman, the horns of the tortoise, a square circle etc.
3) Mithya  - Not separate from Sat (adhiShTana ananyat); Mithya derives
existence from Sat, like the pot derives its existence from clay, the
ornament derives its existence from gold etc. The pot or the ornament cannot
be dismissed as non-existent. Mithya does not have the freedom of making Sat
non-existent. Mithya is sat, Sat is not Mithya. Jagat mithyam.

Now coming to your statement - "A Samadarshi sees Brahman
everywhere. Any separate existence of anything in the world appears as
Mithya." - Yes, a samadarshi sees the Mithya (for others) also as Sat; But
there is no other separate existence apart from Brahman, so the latter part
of your statement is incorrect from a discussion point, and Asat from the
vEdantic point - "nAsatO vidyatE bhAvO nAbhAvO vidhyatE satah (2-16)".

Regards,
Krishnamurthy Ramakrishna. 

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of sunil
bhattacharjya
Sent: Thursday, September 04, 2008 9:45 PM
To: kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Knowledge and the Means of Knowledge - 20

Namaste,

Adi Sankaracharya did use the word Mithya and he did explain its
meaning to his disciples. But in today's times when one says Mithya it
is imperative that it must be explained by compulsorily by adding its
explanation. One can really realise that the world is Mithya only when
one has overcome the Rajas and Tamas, which is the cause of the
Avidya. When one overcomes the Rajas and Tamas one sees Brahman
everywhere and  a world separate from Brahman does not exist.  Lord
Krishna said "Sarvatra samadarshinaam". A Samadarshi sees Brahman
everywhere. Any separate existence of anything in the world appears as
Mithya.

Regards,

Sunil Kumar Bhattacharjya