tman_and_moksa

SR No.: 020053
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: G N Joshi
Publisher: Gujarat University
Publication Year: 1965
Total Pages: 901
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 12 MB

Page 481

Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
Vedānta (S'amkara )
449
He further holds that nothing exists in reality. All that we believe to exist is simply an appearance. It appears to exist but it does not exist in reality. All is only an appearance (Māyā); the appearance that has no existence at all. What appears through the appearances is the Brahman. The appearance of the world is due to adhyāsa ( A) or superimposition, according to S'awkara. Superimposition (adhyāsa ) consists in wrongly ascribing attributes of other things to a thing when they do not really belong to it. S'amikara describes the superimposition as follows. He first considers various views about it and concludes ---" But all these definitions agree in so far as they represent superimposition as the apparent presentation of the attributes of one thing in another thing." He further holds that the whole world is an outcome of ad hyāsa or superimposition on the Brahman. The Brahman or Ātman remains what it is for ever; it never becomes, it simply is. All the changes which we perceive do not belong to the Brahman as it is the same for all times and never changes. The changes of the world are falsely ascribed to the Brahman by way of superimposition. Superimposition thus, consists in a false estimation of the Brahman. The moment the real nature of the Self comes to be known, wrong ideas about it melt away as unreal things which are caused by superimposition. S'ankara further holds that the whole world is caused by the numerous adjuncts
1 S'amkara (Com.) on Vedānta Sūtras (Tr. Thibaut), Vol. 1.1.1, p. 5. A 29
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