[Advaita-l] 'world' is not the mental creation of tiny soul !!

[subhanu]

Sri
Subramanian wrote:

I would like to know the source of this verse.  Someone told me that

Sureshwaracharya has quoted or said this in his work/s.  Kindly confirm.  I

find a word द्वैतेन्द्रजालस्य in the NS 2.112, however

 

Namaste,
I am in the middle of an extended business trip so I will try and give a full
answer when I have time later, but in response to the above, the verse asya
dvaita-jālasya.. is BUBV 1.4.371. Sri Swamiji discusses it in VPP section 119
(118 in Alston’s English translation). Another verse is worth noting also  in this context is BUBV 2.3.86 māyendra-jālasya vyāmohāspadam ātmanah,
where this magic show is described as fashioned by ignorance which is nothing
other than confusion (moha).

 

Though
not fully answering your question, but as a stop-gap until I am free, I am
repeating my posts to the Satchidanandendra list below:

 

Sri Swamiji's precise view is that the cause of the world is the Self as
unknown. He explicitly states in VPP Vārtikāprasthāna-parīkṣā
(Ch 7 section 118) “api tu ajñātātmaiva kāraṇam ityasmākam
abhyupagamah “ , “such is our view that the cause is the atman
as unknown “.

 

He
makes this comment when discussing the important Vārtikā BUBV 1.4.480:

ajñāta
ātmā jagatah kāraṇam na guṇatrayam,

The
atman as unknown is the cause of the world, not the 3 guṇas.


[Now
it is worth noting that BUBV 1.4.482 and 487 also have the following statements:

“Yadātmake
nāmarūpe” ityajñānātmatā tayoh [BUBV 1.4.482]

It
is stated in the bhashya “Yadātmake nāmarūpe” that these two are products of
ignorance

And
subsequently:

īshwarāvyākṛta-prāṇa-virād-bhūtendriyādikam

nāvidyopāshritya
muktvā sambhāvyam pratyagātmani [BUBV 1.4.487]

It
is not possible to entertain the notion of the various (8) states of īshwara,
the unmanifest, prāṇa, virāj, the elements, sense organs etc, without the
support of ignorance.

This
is explicitly stating that name and form, the unmanifest etc are falsely
imagined through avidyā.]


Sri
Swamiji then further clarifies in VPP ch 7 ,118:


Yah
kāraṇam iti tu sarvasyāpi jagato rajju-sarpādivad-vikalpa-mātratvāt,
tadāspadatvam eva kāraṇatvam brahmaṇa iti jñāpayitum

Where
Shankara has stated “The Self which is the cause of all the universe”, it was
only to show that, because the universe is merely imagined like the snake in
the rope, the Absolute is the cause in the sense that it is the substrate on
which imaginations are made.


Earlier
in section 116, Sri Swamiji also makes the statement:

ajñānopāshrayeṇa
brahmaiva kāraṇam dvaitasyetyabhiprāyah

The
Absolute is the cause through the medium of ignorance


Now,
confusion could stem from a view that,  as causality is mediated through ignorance,
and ignorance is a mental notion, the “jiva” is falsely “creating” the universe
in his mind. The confusion might arise through such passages in VPP section 143
as:

Avidyāyāh
svabhāva eva hyeṣah; yadavidyamānam vastu pratyupasthāpyapekṣayā ātmānam
paricchinam ivāpādya

For
it is the very nature of ignorance that it sets up the appearance of existence
of things that do not really exist, and makes the Self appear circumscribed by
them.

(Note
Swamiji here is directly echoing a vārtikā at BUBV 2.4.456 avidyāyāh
svabhāvo’yam yadasatkaraṇam mriṣā: ignorance falsely “creates” that which does
not exist)


However,
elsewhere Sri Swamiji clearly states that precisely because name and form are
falsely imagined, no real creation, sustenance and destruction can occur. In
VPP Chapter 3 section 35, Sri Swamiji writes:

Nāmarūpa-jagatah,
pratīyamānarūpeṇa, vikalpamātratvāt rajjusarpāderiva na janma-sthiti-bhangam.

Since
the world of name and form, being no more than an apprehension, is merely
falsely imagined, it no more undergoes creation, sustenance and dissolution
than a rope-snake does.


And
of course one should never forget that causality is only a device to establish
the only reality that is Atman (BUBV 1.2.27 evam bhūtātma-siddhyartham kāraṇādi
prasāddhyate; upāyah so’vatārāya tathā tatjñaishcha sūtritam: cause and effect
are only employed to establish the already existent Atman, “it is a mere
device”, so has stated that great knower of the tradition ie Gaudapada). For in
VPP Ch7, section 118, Sri Swamiji summarises as follows:

Atra
kārya-kāraṇa-bhāva eva na yuktisah iti pratyākhyātah. Etad
vididityottara-shlokairapi, ante upasamhritam:

Jagatutpatti-samhārās
tadvadātmani kalpitāh

Vastuvrittam
samālokya kutah sriṣṭyādi sambhavah? [BUBV 2.1.411] iti. 

Tathā
cha māyikam eva jagat-kāraṇatvam ityabhiyukta-sampradāya evātrānusritah.

“Here
the whole notion of cause and effect is refuted as logically indefensible. A
few verses later (Sri Swamiji has just been quoting BUBV 2.1.399), Suresvara
summarises as:

So,
the creations and withdrawals of the universe have been merely imagined. When
you have seen reality as it is, how can the notions of creation etc be even
seen as possible? And
so, Suresvara keeps to the true vedantic tradition of stating that causality
supposed to produce the world is purely illusory.”


Hope
the above is helpful.

Regards

Subhanu