[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Fwd: World is mind alone: Shankara

[Jitendra Pant]

Namaskar to all,

If I may add my request to Shri Santosh's: I would love to know which
English commentaries and translations of the Upanishads to go for, and also
for the other seminal texts, such as Vedanta-Sara, Aporaksha Anubhuti, and
Drg-Drisya Viveka etcetera. It is difficutl to find one that is lucid as
well as punctilious to the original. And since I do not know Sanskrit, I am
at quite a loss. I recently bought a translation of the VivekaChudamani (by
John Grimes) and though it is scholastic and accurate, I find the
commentary simplified.

Also, engaging with the original works of a philosopher is thrilling. For
example, reading Heideigger's Introduction to Metaphyiscs (which I am
attempting to read) even in what is now an old translation from the German
is quite exciting.

Finally, may be kind readers will point me to some place where a list of
interesting and essential books on philosophy is given. That would be
incredibly helpful.

With gratitude,
Jitendra Pant

On Mon, Mar 31, 2025 at 8:45 PM santosh mahapatra via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Parnams to Everyone in this Esteemed group.
> I am keen to read and understand Vedas/Upansihads (possibly the
> commentaries of Masters) in the English versions as I am not quite
> comfortable in Sanskrit. May I have your suggestions regarding the order in
> which I should begin my journey? Should I begin with Vedas or Upanishads?
> What would be a good order for a novice?
> My humblest Pranams,
> Santosh
>  "Ego rules the world. People are helpless victims of their egos."-- Amma
> (Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, The Hugging Saint)
>
>     On Monday, March 31, 2025 at 03:09:52 AM EDT, Sudhanshu Shekhar via
> Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
>  Namaste Subbu ji.
>
> Thanks for the write-up.
>
> There are two views regarding the material cause of dream. First view,
> which is more common sense, is to have mind as the upAdAna of dream. And
> second, where avidyA itself is the upAdAna. In the first view, the
> adhishThAna of dream is sAkshi-chaitanya whereas in the second, it is
> Brahman which is the adhishThAna of dream. Sanskrit VichAra Sagara, on page
> 206 says - स्वाप्न-पदार्थानाम्-उपादानम्-अन्तःकरणम्, अथवा साक्षात् अविद्या
> एव।  आद्यपक्षे साक्षिचैतन्यं स्वप्नाधिष्ठानम्। द्वितीयपक्षे ब्रह्मचैतन्यं
> स्वप्नाधिष्ठानम्।
>
> Since dream and waking have identical properties in DSV, these two
> approaches are valid even within DSV. So, one view of DSV accepts
> waking-world with mind as the upAdAna, whereas the other view has directly
> avidyA as the upAdAna.
>
> *First view:*
>
> "सर्वं ह्यन्तःकरणविकारमेव जगत्", "अतो मनोविकल्पनामात्रं द्वैतमिति सिद्धम्",
> "तेन हि मनसा विकल्प्यमानेन दृश्यं मनोदृश्यम् इदं द्वैतं सर्वं मन इति
> प्रतिज्ञा" - these statements appear to be within the framework of first
> option.
>
> *Second view:*
>
> "घटादिस्थानीयास्तु देहादिसङ्घाताः स्वप्नदृश्यदेहादिवन्मायाविकृतदेहादिवच्च
> आत्ममायाविसर्जिताः, आत्मनो माया अविद्या, तया प्रत्युपस्थापिताः" - this
> appears to be within the second framework.
>
> It appears to me that this distinction is merely with respect to
> शङ्का-परिहार-सौकर्य. The fundamental features of DSV namely "(a)
> prAtibhAsika-sattA of entire seen (b) eka-jIva (c) ajnAta-sattA-abhAva of
> seen (d) sAkshi-bhAsyatva of entire seen" are common to both.
>
> Regards.
> Sudhanshu Shekhar.
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