Introducing ADVAITA by Harish Damodaran (cool books to read txt) 📕

cardinal to the school of Advaita Vedanta. Maya is the seed of the world of difference. It is the indescribable world of experience in entirety. Maya is the Principle, which makes the one appear as the many.

Maya is not an entity, not a substance and it does not affect the Brahman. This disparity between appearance and reality is mainly due to the inherent limitation of the Jiva. Maya is the statement of this fact. In Advaita it acts as the connecting link between the infinite and the finite.
The system of Advaita denies any kind of change in the absolute, Brahman. It does not under go any transition. The physical world of multiplicity or jagat, is only a vivertha or appearance. This appearance is due to Maya.

In Vivertha Vada of causation the cause is not transformed into the effect but the true nature of the cause is hidden; screened and in its place the world of variety and form is projected. In Advaita, vivertha stands for the appearance of one, pure, qualityless Brahman as characterized by a world of various qualities and attributes.
Brahman, which is beyond the scope of space and time, is brought under the categories of space and time. This is happening due to adhyasa (super imposition). It is exactly as perceiving a snake that is actually not presented. World is Maya. It is only a vyavaharika sathya. In order to understand Maya one has to rise from vyavaharika level to the paramarthika level.

Maya is not real because it can be overcome by BrahmaJnana. Maya is not unreal also, because unlike the "hare's horn" it is not a mere absurdity. It is our subjective mode of experience. Hence Maya is said to be anirvachaniya (that cannot be defined). It is not a substance with a function. It has two properties-avarana (covering) and Vikshepa (projection). Avarana is negative and viksepa is positive. It is through Maya, name and form (bhavarupa) evolve.

As energy of ‘Isvara’(Brahman as viewed from empirical level) Maya represents force, power and energy (Sakti). Sakti is the character of Prakriti (primal matter). Maya is therefore, identified with prakrithi. Maya is unintelligent and therefore it is called Jada. Maya is also Anadi (beginingless).

Maya is inexplicable; in the sense that it is not self - explanatory. For one who knows Brahman there is no Maya. But one who takes his standpoint of logic and reasoning can never understand the relation between Maya and Brahman. It is because to know Brahman is to be Brahman. Thus, through reason, we can never understand how the ultimate is related to the world.

Chapter 3
The concept of Liberation in Advaita

Advaita is unique in its treatment of knowledge, because it believes that to escape sansara is to know Brahman and to know Brahman is to be Brahman. The point Advaita wants to make clear is that bondage is due to the soul’s ignorance. This ignorance is not due to any other reality either inherent or external. The ignorance is like a rope-snake. It ceases to be a snake when knowledge arises. Like wise, with the rise of knowledge of Brahman (Brahma Jnana), all illusions disappear. There occurs Brahmatmaikatva or the realization of the identity of the Atman or self with the Brahman. This is the final end of the life, according to Advaita.

Means to Liberation

As mentioned earlier, Jnana and Jnana alone is the means to attain mukti. Jnana destroys Karma and removes Maya as fire destroys fuel and light removes darkness respectively.

Brahmajnana is a result of study of vedanta, which includes the learning of the Vedas and the Upanisads . The Vedas and Upanisads are said to be apauruseya (not created by human beings or God). Since Sruti is the only record of what occured in moments of exalted imagination, to the minds of saints and sages, there can be nothing that is accidental or contingent in it. They are eternal truths.
The truths that are enshrined in Sruti can be verified by anyone. They are not the exclusive monopoly of the enlightened Ones. But to get the knowledge , one has to go through the disciplines that are laid down for him by the sages.

Sankaracharya speaks of a four fold eligibility (Sadhana chatushtaya) in Vivekachudamani. It consists of Nityanitya vastuviveka, Ihamutra phala bhogaviraga, Samadamadi Sadhana Sampath and Mumukshutva.

Nityanitya Vastuviveka is the ability to discriminate between the transcient (ever changing) and the eternal. The world of senses consists of objects which are transcient. Those which are coming and going cannot be eternal. But there must be some eternal being which is the ground of these eternal things. To know that the self alone is eternal and all else is non-eternal is called Nityanitya vastu viveka.

Ihamutrabhalabhoga viraga is the absence of desire for securing pleasure or avoiding pain here or else where. One should not desire for any kind of this worldly or other worldly pleasures.

Samadamadi sadhana sampath involves attainment of six sadhanas. They are Sama (calmness), Dama (temperance), Titiksha (the spirit of renunciation), Uparathi (fortitude), Sraddha (power of concentration of the mind) and Samadhana (faith in truth).

An aspirant who has attained these six qualities will find that the sacrificial injunctions have no value.

Once the individual attains the three qualities of Nityanitya vastu viveka and Samadamadi Sadhana sampath, he will be a true sanyasin and will have constant desire for freedom.

Mumukshuthva is the earnest desire to know the truth as such. One who attains this eligibility can approach a proper teacher (Guru), who himself is an enlightened one, a released soul (Brahmanishta); to study the Sruti.

Of the four fold path of the Sadhana chatushtaya, it can be seen that earlier one is the cause of the each subsequent one; as, when there is the discrimination between eternal, and non-eternal, there is non-attachment to all kinds of pleasures too; when this detachment is cultivated, there arise samadamadi Sadhana Sampath and so on.

One who performs the four Sadhanas and seeks the help of a proper Guru, can hear from the Guru, the secret of the Upanisads. This stage is called Sravana (hearing). What is heard from the teacher is to be reflected upon to get intellectual conviction.
The disciple is not asked to accept dogmatically whatever is taught by the Guru, even though, the Guru is a competent authority. He can verify it by reasoning (yukti). This stage is called Manana.
But to get direct experience of reality, reason cannot help. Only experience (anubhava) can help. Thus manana is to be followed by the next stage, Dhyana or Niddhidhyasana. Here what has been convinced through reason is to be meditated upon and the result is to be one with that or more correctly, to get Sakshatkara which Sri Sankara designates to be the supreme anubhava, namely, the Advaitanubhuti.

Thus, the procedure is not at all dogmatic. Importance is given to the reason and the experience. Sankaracharya employs the method of objection (purva paksha) and answer (Siddhanta). This is a clear evidence for the Advaitin’s disregard for dogmatism.

The Advatins, even when they study the Sruti, are not taking a dogmatic or authoritarian attitude. Even the Sruti is put to the test of reason. They apply Sadlinga or six characteristic marks to examine the Sruti. They are,

a) Upakarma-Upasamhara- The harmony of the initial and concluding passages.
b) Abhyasa- Repetition ( purportful passage will repeated).
c) Apurvata- Novelty of the idea.

d) Phala- Fruitfulness.

e) Arthavada- Glorification by enlogistic passages.

f) Upapathi - Intelligibility in the light of reasoning.

Thus, by doing four Sadhanas, listening to the words of the Guru and by the study of Sruthi, one can attain Liberation.

From Advaitin’s point of view, Jnana alone liberates. But this assertion does not mean that virtue is of less importance in Advaita. Though non duality is the highest truth, Advaita recognizes a lower stand point where all differences are real. At this level, there is full scope for all the obligations of moral life.

Therefore, the Advaitin accepts all the standards of moral values, as long as he is in the vyavaharika world. They exhort us to avoid sins forbidden by the Sastras. The person, who properly discharges all the obgligations, will exhibit certain characteristics, which will qualify him for the study of Vedanta.
According to Sankaracharya, Karma is not the direct means to liberation. Instead, it is the direct means to knowledge. So, one should not give up karmas while he is in the vyavaharika level.

Advaitins accept devotion or Bhakti as essential for the ‘vikshepa dosha’ of the mind which causes lack of concentration.

Bhakti implies disinterested services to God. So it is also a form of karma. The object of devotion is personal God; Isvara. Isvara is the protecter of his devotees. For his grace absolute faith and dependence are necessary.

By devotion, the mind becomes steady. By removed of the vikshepa, one becomes free from the evil desires that make the mind impure. In the absence of vikshepa, one can detach from the various attachments of the world.

When one surrenders himself wholeheartedly to God, he becomes free from all types of the worldly attachments. Thus he can perform his karmas correctly.

However, Bhakti is essential only for whose intellect is fickle. Whose mind is pure and intellect is steady need not take up Bhakti, even though it is not prohibited to him.
Advaita rejects the total synthesis of action, devotion and knowledge. But Advaitins are not against their partial synthesis. It is called Karma Samuchaya.

Karma and Jnana cannot be placed on the same footing. The cessation of the false world of multiplicity and the realization of one’s true nature which constitutes liberation is possible only through Jnana; and not through Karma, or Bhakti or Karma and Jnana together or Bhakti-Jnana coordination. Knowledge is the sole means. Therefore, sama samuchaya (total synthesis) of Jnana, Karma and Bhakti is rejected since they are meant for three different levels of intellect.

Concept of Mukti

Mukti is the realization of one’s own true nature. The Jiva or the soul is always free in its nature and its essence. It is ever infinite, ever conscious and ever blissful. It has the nature of Brahman. It has Brahman.
Owing to ignorance, Jiva does not realize its own essence. So in Advaita, mukti is the process by which the ignorance of the soul is removed, so that the soul can have a clear vision of itself as Brahman. It is the effect of the ignorance that veils the real conscious of the Jiva. Thus, it thinks itself to be different and separate from Brahman. Therefore, according to Advaita vedanta, mukti is not a new state to be newly attained; but it is the very nature of the self or Jiva.

It is knowledge that can destroy ignorance and bring about mukti. This brings about the self-realization. It is the highest goal of one’s life. This realization that results in the identification of the self with Brahman is called Brahmanubhava.

Brahmanubhava is anirvachaniya since it means knowing by being and not a knowing in the ordinary sense of the term. Brahmanubhava gives the highest insight into the Brahman and he who has it knows the answers to every question of the nature of the Brahman as pure being, pure consciousness and pure bliss.

Liberation, in a negative sense, is characterized by the cessation of sorrow, which is an effect of ignorance. Sorrow is the result of the superimposition of the non-self on the self. The self attaches itself to the psycho-physical organism. As a result of liberation, the self realizes that its previous attachment with worldly matters was unreal. This removes misery owing to