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

[Venkata sriram P]

Dear Murty,
 
The whole thing boils down if you clearly understand the definition of "mithya".
 
////
 
All this objection is answered like in Page 120. The silver is really
there.  Not seeing small part of silver and seeing large part of shell
but large part of silver only. This happened. When you see shell in
bright light large part of shell is saying it is shell.  The Advaiti
calls silver Mithya but the Visishtadvaiti says it is not Mithya at
all.
 
//
 
Even though you perceive shell as silver, upon the dawn of right knowledge, you don't
perceive the shell as silver anymore.  The false perception of  rope to be snake goes off upon switching off the torch; the perception of jagat goes off upon the dawn of wisdom (yaH sAkShAt kurutE prabOdha samayE svAtmAnaM eva advayaM".  
 
So, that false knowledge which goes off upon the dawn of right knowledge, is mithya.  
 
That said, Advaita stands a class apart from others which is vouchsafed by  shruti itself which says: "tamEvaM vidvAn amrita iha bhavati / nAnyaH panthA ayanAya vidyatE".
 
The shruti vakya "amrita iha bhavati" indicates the Jivanmukti which obviously speaks of Advaita Siddhanta and there is no other path other than this "nAnyaH panthA ayanAya vidyatE". 
 
Till then, such a person is said to be under the clutches of mAyA (mAyA paribhrAmitaH) whoever he may be whether Ramanuja, Madhva, blah blah......
 
regs,
sriram