Advaita Vedanta

Glossary

Sansrkit	Definition
bhakti	devotion
karma	selfless action
dhyana	meditation
nama-rupa	name and form
sat	real
cit	consciousness
ananda	bliss
saccitananda	true self
mithya	false, dependant existence (e.g.: pot, universe)
satyam	truth, independent existence (e.g.: clay, brahma)
visnau	all-pervasive
uppadhi	untranslatable conditioning adjunct
atma	inner divinity eternal free full complete limitless
sharira	body, root meaning: undergoing decay
deha	body, root meaning: fit for being burned
mahabhuta	fundamental elements
sukhsmabhuta	subtle elements
sthulabhuta	physical elements

Underlying reality Brahma

The world appears to be real until the underlying reality is understood. When you understand the shell is shell, you don't take it for silver.

The pot appears because clay is the underlying reality of the pot. If the pot weights three lbs, how much weight is added by the pot? Nothing, the pot is not an additional thing added the clay. There is only clay, and the pot appears because of the clay. The pot is only a name and form. As pot cannot exist without clay, pot's existence depends on clay. Pot exists dependant on the underlying reality clay, so this is mithya. Clay is satyam because it exists independently. The pot is an experience.

The same way, Brahma is the underlying reality because of which the universe exists. The universe we experience is an appearance, countless names and forms.

Because the universe contains not only insentient things like pots but sentient beings like conscious beings, the material out of which the universe if formed cannot be an inert form. It should be conscious, intelligent material.

The underlying reality because of which the universe exists is Brahman.

The universe is divine because it has Brahman for underlying reality.

The potter places the form of pot upon its underlying reality clay. All beings are formed by being placed upon its underlying reality Brahma.

If there are hundreds on pots, there is only one clay.

The universe or cosmos includes not only sentient things like pot but also insentient things.

Good and bad

Using words as good, bad, evil is using our own personal judgments and biases to evaluate it. Human beings can be driven by greed, or hunger. and can do terrible things when driven by them. Acts of crime or war are equally natural as greed and hunger. Impurity is a matter of personal opinions.Everything in the universe is divine. What is good and bad is a matter of opinion, it is a value judgment.

Ignorance is beginning less but comes to an end. Usually what is beginning less has no end like Atman, Isvara, the cycle of creation.

superimposition

The form of the pot is an uppadhi. This pot is an uppadhi for clay. Clay is conditioned by the uppadhi pot and appears in the form of pot. The pot is superimposed on the clay.

The space in the pot is all-pervasive is like stuck inside the pot in terms of experience.

The space in pots appears divided but it is not. The space is one, all-pervasive and indivisible.

The consciousness is one, all-pervasive and indivisible.

Our body is an uppadhi.

uppadhi, conditioning adjunct, is that which gives rise to an appearance or a wrong conclusion, which can be falsely understood. An appearance which can be subject to be misunderstood.

When we see a pot, we can come to the wrong conclusion that the pot is the reality.

pot is an uppadhi for space, meaning, the uppadhi of pot causes space to appear as pot's space.

all pervasive space appears to be finite, limited to be confined individual to the

body, mind, prana, senses, life forces is an uppadhi that causes one all-pervasive indivisible consciousness appears as bubble of consciousness. It is not true but experientially it seems so.

when I crush 2 pots, the appearance of individual pot's spaces disappears, what remains is all-pervasive space remains.

when this body dies, nothing happens to the consciousness.

Since the consciousness that make one knows his thoughts, mind, and experiences, and the consciousness by which I am aware of my thoughts, mind and experiences, why don't I know others thoughts? One consciousness illuminates everybody's mind. Where this question is coming from? From the mind. Our minds are separated.

The attributes of body (color, status) are superimposed on atma.

The problem of suffering does no belong to atma. Atma has no problem. Your body and mind had problems.

Body

sthula sharira	physical body	What is tangible, that you can touch. Experience of pleasure, pain, suffering, made of 5 physical elements, your body exists due to karma. the karma of your parents gave rise to your physical body. Memory is stored in the physical body Physical Hardware as CPU/hardware equivalent to the outermost sheaths: anamaya kochas locus of the problem of the body
sukshma sharira	subtle body	intangible, means for experience; 5 vital forces, mind, intelligence, not present in the dead body / ghost / it makes alive, enliven, the physical body, make physical body into a living body / that is that body that leaves the physical body at the time of death and travel on to another life / transmigrating entity / it has not weight / subtle body is composed of 17 parts: 5 fold vital forces (prana) (food digestion, breathing, regurgitation, blood circulation, reversing function), 10 faculties divided in two groups: 5 senses faculties (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch) and 5 faculties of movement (grasping, walking, talking, excretion, and sexual function), and 2-fold way of dividing mental faculties: intellect or intentional mental activity (buddhi), unintentional mental activity as emotions (manas) equivalent to 3 sheaths/kochas within the anamaya kosha: pranamaya kosha: made of prana life-force, e.g.: "I am tired", "I am sick" manomaya kosha: made of manas (mind, sense-organs), e.g: emotions like fear "I am afraid" vignamaya kosha: made of buddhi (intellect), e.g: decision-making process, confusion: "I am so confused" That is what travels on to another life at the time of death. Non-physical like Software/Data sthula sharira/sukshma sharira only function in the presence of Atma/Consciousness, the electricity
karana sharira	causal body	beginning-less ignorance, self-non-recognition that is the cause of desires. equivalent to the innermost kosha: anandamaya kosha, what remains in deep/dream-less sleep "I am blissful" The experience of bliss belongs to anandamaya kosha. This is the expression of identification of this kosha. The conscience is not experienced, it is the experiencer. It is neither blissful nor un-blissful. birth is result of karma karma is result of by kama (desire) why? because you don't recognize your true nature/self anand/consciouness, desire is driven self-non-recognition/ignorance samsara chakra = cycle of birth and death is beginning-less ignore ignorance is neither sat (like brahman) nor asat, it is mithya It does not make sense that it travels but it is within in the sukshma sharira

There are five Subtle (non-physical) elements sukhsmabhuta, are the precursors of the physical elements, they can recombine in a 5-fold recombination way, it can create physical elements.

There are five Physical elements sthulabhuta: space, air, fire, water, earth.

The karma of your past lives that determine you will be born to your parents. Your karma (karma of your past lives) that determines your birth in this cycle is interrelated with the karma of your parents.

We are born because of our karma.

Birth is caused by karma. Karma is caused by desire (kama). We have desires because because we don't recognize our true nature (self-non-recognition). Indeed, we find ourselves incomplete, lacking things, therefore, we have desires to fulfill these desires. Karana sharira is beginning less ignorance. Karma is caused by beginning less-ignorance. Kama is caused by beginning less ignorance.

Samsara shakra (cycle of ignorance, of births and death): born ignorant, due to ignorance, you have kama, due to kama, you accumulates karma, due to karma, you get reborn ignorant.Ignorance is neither sat (real) nor asat (unreal), but it is mythia (apparently real).

You have to use discernment (viveka) to know how your true self is different from the 3 bodies. The absence of discernment leads to suffering. Failure to discern the difference between your true self and koshas creates suffering. we identify because of absence of discernment. Experience does not help, that is experience that gets us in trouble.

5 sheaths = 3 sharira

sthula sharira is equivalent to the

sukshma sharira = 3 sheaths

As there are 5 koshas, due to the association of atma with the 5 koshas, there are 5 places/locis (pl. of locus) where suffering takes place. Atma gets identified with each of the 5 kochas.

When you are afraid, it belongs to the manomaya kosha, don't identify yourself with the monomaya kosha. Say "Fear is present in my mind" instead of "I am afraid".

Emotions such happiness or sadness belongs to the mind and does affect your consciousness at all. It feels like they wear off to the consciousness. It mislead us into thinking that our consciousness is happy or sad.

By threshing the true self with reason, you can separate the true self with the 5 koshas like rice kernels covered by husk. The solution is not more experience. Experience causes confusion. What we look for is discernment.

Consciousness

Even though consciousness is present everywhere (all-pervasive), it does not appear everywhere, it is not experienced everywhere. Consciousness appears wherever there is a sukshma sharira. Consciousness shines because being reflected by the mind.

• You experience consciousness in a human being.
• You do not experience consciousness in a chair.

But there is a catch. How do you know the human being is not a carefully designed robot that has no consciousness? When we look at people, we don't experience consciousness, we presume consciousness. How do you discern inert from conscious being? Wherever there is a shukshma sharira, consciousness appears or manifests. Like wherever there is a shiny surface, consciousness appears. Consciousness does not manifest in an inert object because there is no shukshma sharira. As advanced as the robot will be, they won't be self-aware because it lacks a shukshma sharira. To be self-aware, it requires two things: consciousness/awareness and manas and buddhi (mind and intellect) through which reflexive awareness. In order to be aware of yourself, you need a consciousness and a shukshma sharira to make consciousness reflected.

Atma is the passive conscious observer, the passive awareful witness that which observes without being involved.

All mental activities/functions (thoughts, emotions, sensations) are constantly active. What activity atma is engaged in? He is an observer but a passive observer.

We attribute the motion of the cloud to the un-movable moon. We attribute the orangeness of this cloth to the crystal which is clear. We attribute of the minds to consciousness. That is the root cause of suffering.

"the dreamer's mind is non-dual with respect to what it dreams about"

"the consciousness is non-dual with respect to what it experiences this objective universe"

"consciousness [subject] is different from objects"

"objects of consciousness is not different from consciousness"

wave is not different from the water

you are distinct from your dreams but the dreams cannot exist without you

The entire universe is an appearance in consciousness.

Maya

According to Swami Vivekananda, Maya is:

• Saints die, and sinners die, kings die, and paupers die, the learner die, and the ignorant die, all must die and yet there is this tremendous clinging to life. We know it is certain we will die, and yet the most powerful clinging to life. This is Maya.
• Limits to knowledge: the more we know, the more we realize we don't know. This is Maya.
• Limits of sense pleasure: pursuit of pleasure "until crippled we are swept away by death". This is Maya.
• Limits to free-will: we feel we are free, but there are limits to our free-will. This is Maya.
• The more you increase the power of enjoyment, the more vulnerable, weak, the more prone to suffering you are. This is Maya.
• Mother and ungrateful child, she cannot shake the feeling off that keep takes care of her child. This is Maya.
• Drama of life: young, full of possibility, we become older and more disappointed and bitter. and death sweeps us away from the stage of life. Victorious or defeated, we do not know. This is Maya.
• Krishna and Narada story
• Maya of samsara
• Maya is not a theory to explain the world. Maya is simply a statement of facts, a description of the sheer paradoxical nature of life.
• All is Maya.

Any kind of expressions (name and form, in time, space and causation) is finite.

The infinite express himself not in the flow of maya but against the current.

Renunciation therefore is the basis of spirituality.

The moment we have something, we want more. Life overflows.

I am Brahma. I am that what I was looking outside. Tat tvam asi. You are that. The reality that was hidden by Maya. You were hidden by Maya. Maya did not hide the truth from you. You are the truth. You are the stage on which the drama of life has been staged.

The play of Maya is your own play. His is not hiding from you

References

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3cuMEBYm_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o45LO_G145g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxUXl2YXXL4	Maya by Swami Sarvapriyananda
https://iep.utm.edu/adv-veda/
http://www.advaitayoga.org/discussion/reincarnation.html