A Constructive Survey of Upanishadic Philosophy c7.s5.1.6

c7.s5.1.6

In like manner has Śaṅkara been charged with having been an idealist-nihilist in spite of his celebrated criticism of these doctrines. The recognition of the distinction between the Vyāvahārika and the Pāramārthika views of reality, added to the recognition of the Prātibhāsika and the Svāpnika views, which may also be gathered from his philosophy elsewhere, yields us a doctrine of the Degrees of Reality, which is all the while implicit in Śaṅkara, though it is never explicitly stated. Greater reality than the reality of the world of illusion belongs to the world of dream ; greater reality than the reality of the world of dream belongs to the world of life ; greater reality than the reality of the world of life belongs to the world of the Self, or God, or the Absolute, which are all ultimately identical with one another. Every system of philosophy must needs take account of some sort of appearance. From the days of Parmenides, Plato, and Plotinus to the days of Berkeley, Hegel, and Bradley, there has been the same cry. There is an extraordinary "moral" meaning in the doctrine of Appearance which critics of that doctrine systematically ignore. To quote the words of Carlyle : "Where is the cunning eye and ear to whom that God-written Apocalypse will yield articulate meaning ? We sit as in a boundless Phantasmagoria and Dream-grotto ;