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 |
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 finited 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 experientiallyh 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.
| sthula sharira | physical body | 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 |
| sukshma sharira | subtle body | intangible, means for experience; 5 vital forces, mind, interll |
| karana sharira | causal body |
Five Physical elements sthulabhuta: space, air, fire, water, earth
Five Subtle elements sukhsmabhuta, that can recombine in 5-fold recombination way, it can create physical elements.
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.
subtle elements are precursor of physical elements
Consciousness
"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