Indian Philosophy v2.c26.s8.11

v2.c26.s8.11

The illustrations of earth, iron and sparks of fire used in the Upaniṣads are meant only to help us to a realisation of the absolute.⁶ In later Vedānta this position is elaborated into the view of adhyāropāpavāda, or an illusory attribution to be followed by withdrawal.⁷ The metaphysical truth contained in these statements is that the empirical world has for its substratum the Ātman, which, in reality, is a non-cognition of all duality (dvaitasyāgrahaṇam).⁸ “The world of duality is mere māyā, the real being the non-dual.”⁹ Śaṃkara says: “The variety of experience subsists in the Ātman, as the snake does in the rope.”¹⁰ We should not say that the Ātman converts itself into the world. It gives birth to things as a rope does to a snake, and not in reality.¹ It appears to become many only through māyā, and not of itself (na tattvataḥ).² "The existence of the variety of experience cannot be said to be identical with the Ātman, nor in any way standing independently by itself, and nothing is different or identical."³ The world is neither one with the Ātman nor different from it. When Gauḍapāda has his attention fixed on the supreme reality, he declares that the world is only a dream or an illusion, and that the differences are only apparent.⁴