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 18

CONTEMPORARY VEDANTA PHILOSOPHY, 11
679
negation of the phenomenal world and so forgetting it. We rise to the sixth plane by critical analysis of the subject-object relation. We rise to the seventh plane by insight into reality. In every case the progress is accomplished by knowledge, action or emotion playing a subordinate role if any.
Why Brahman should fall to lower planes is an insoluble problem, since there is no reason for it, yet we can describe the six steps of the process in terms of maya and lila, two basic concepts of Vedanta philosophy. Maya, illusion, analogous to evil in Christian philosophy, is essentially inexplicable, but is the cause of the world as we see it. It may have an end, and so a cause of ceasing to be, as discussed in the preceding paragraph, but it has no beginning, and so no cause of coming into being. A dream ends on waking, but within the dream it seems to have been going on from the indefinite past, and likewise with the waking world. Lila, sport, analogous to creation in Christian philosophy, is also inexplicable rationally. Western philosophy thinks of the Creator after the analogy of a human artisan, and so conceives him as creating the world by imposing form (usually thought of as itself an aspect of the Creator) on matter (usually thought of as itself previously created ex nihilo) for some purpose, thus raising the difficult but fascinating theological problem of what this purpose might be. Hindu philosophy thinks of the Creator after the analogy of man not working but playing, and so conceives creation as the Creator's spontaneous and purposeless play or sport manifesting his intrinsic exuberance. Brahman, according to Chaudhury, falls to the sixth plane by maya suggesting the idea of objectivity, the primordial illusion. It descends to the fifth plane by lila positing the objectivity so suggested. It descends to the fourth plane by maya suggesting objects made possible by the posited objectivity. It descends to the third plane (the phenomenal world) by lila positing such objects, including the bodies by which individual selves are distinguished from one another, in accordance with the rules of the game, which are the laws of nature, especially karma, the law of causality. Any individual falls to the second plane by maya defying these laws to suggest objects not determined by them. The individual falls to the first plane by lila positing such unregulated objects.