Contemporary Vedanta Philosophy 02

SR No.: 269349
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: George Burch
Publisher: George Burch
Total Pages: 19
Language: English
Classification: Article
File Size: 2 MB

Page 15

676
GEORGE BURCH
since the world does not exist even as illusion. According to the subjectivists, like Prakashananda, the advocate of monopsychism, there are two planes, illusion and reality. According to the realists, like Sankara, the most famous Vedanta philosopher," there are three planes—empirical illusion, cosmic illusion (empirically real), and reality. According to K. C. Bhattacharya, there are four planes. But according to Chaudhury there are seven. Four are basic," while the other three are transitional, equally actual as levels of awareness but intelligible only in terms of the planes immediately above and below. We can know the existence of planes higher than our own by the testimony of those who have this experience, as reported in mystical literature, and we can try to understand these planes by analogy with our own experience. Chaudhury rejects revelation, but respects the Upanishads as testimony of their authors' experience.
The planes of reality are as follows. (1) The lowest plane (rejected on all others as unreal) is that of dreams, and other such illusions, created by the individual mind. (2) The second (first transitional) plane is the state of waking up, when the dream images still persist but are recognized as unreal. Daydreaming is also on this plane. (3) The third plane is ordinary waking experience. Dream images rejected as unreal are forgotten and so no longer exist even as illusions. The objects of this plane constitute the common empirical world, created not by the individual but by God. (4) The fourth (second transitional) plane is that of spiritual wakening, the state of the Vedantic sage who is aware of the unreality of the world." He realizes gradually, first by faith, then by intellect, finally by insight, that the world is illusion. Perception of empirical objects, however, including his own body, persists, so that he still sees the world
38 Sankara's writings allow some scope for interpretation, however, and Advaitins of various schools tend to assimilate him, because of his prestige, to their own views.
** These cannot, however, be identified with K. C. Bhattacharya's four planes.
The so-called jivan-mukta, but Chaudhury rejects the classical Advaita doctrine of jivan-mukti (complete release from the world while apparently still in it).