[Advaita-l] Can a mithyA-vastu produce an effect? असत्यवस्तुनः अर्थक्रियाकारित्वम्

[V Subrahmanian]

2011/5/18 Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>

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> One answer to this would be as follows.
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> The jnAna, "this is silver", which causes joy, is negated by the act of
> picking up the shell and discovering that it is not silver. The jnAna,
> "this is snake", which causes fear, is negated by the subsequent jnAna
> that it is rope, which eventually removes the fear.
>
> You therefore come to the conclusion that the silver and the snake
> are illusory, and your so-called "real" joy and your so-called "real"
> fear are caused by a so-called "real" jnAna. The problem is that the
> said instances of jnAna cannot really be real, because they are subject
> to negation. Technically, it is calld bAdha.
>
> An instance of jnAna that is subject to bAdha is not true jnAna in the
> paramArtha sense. It is a mental impression. Technically, it is a vRtti.
> The "reality" of vRtti-jnAna is changeable and therefore the "real"
> emotions of joy and fear caused by them are also changeable. They
> are also subject to bAdha.
>
> Any serious response to the above points about bAdha has to have a
> robust definition of what constitutes the "real" and has to have a clear
> perspective on the inevitable conclusion about levels of reality.
>
> Regards,
> Vidyasankar
>

Namaste.

Very nicely said.  Actually I was thinking on these lines but could not
express it so clearly.  Hence I gave out another dimension of the solution
to the problem.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v

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