Location: Amsterdam, Holland
Beloved Francis, There are two great theories regarding the external world in Vedanta : Is the empirical world the mental vritti objectified, or is the objective world a reality which the vritti receives and reports to the jiva? Love, John
Dear John,
From the vantage point of consciousness, both the mental vritti and the “real” objective world are illusions, the true nature of which is consciousness, just as the true nature of a snake seemingly threatening us turns out upon closer scrutiny to be a rope onto which the snake was superimposed by our imagination. Your question then becomes: is the empirical world an illusion of the first kind or of the second kind? The fact of the matter is that an illusion is an illusion, and that trying to establish which one is the “truest” illusion is as illusory as the illusions between which we are trying to establish a difference. It is like trying to say that unicorns are more real than tricorns because, unlike tricorns, they are found in fairy tales, whereas in fact they are both non existent. The reality of the vritti, of the physical world and of the jiva is consciousness.
Love,
Francis
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