Sambodhi 1982 Vol 11

SR No.: 520761
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad
Publication Year: 1982
Total Pages: 502
Language: English, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Gujarati
Classification: Magazine, India_Sambodhi, & India
File Size: 11 MB

Page 69

60
E. A. Solomon
And yet it cannot be denied that whereas the dream is a private experience, everyone has besides this a common waking experience which be regards as real. Vasistha explains this by saying that no mind perceives anything but its own ideas thus each mind imagines a universe by itself and for itself. It is only accidentally that one ideation-series or dreamseries corresponds to another and the corresponding things are taken as the very game and real. If several persons dream about the same thing or eveat it would be very difficult for them to say whether it was really a dream, and it is quite likely that they might take it as an event in actual life. This is exactly what is true of the waking experience. This explanation is from the subjectivistic point of view and does not satisfy the Indian mind. The Yoga-Vasiştha itself transcends this and propounds a view which may be styled 'Monistic Idealism'.
Even the jivas or individual souls or minds are not ultimately real. Hence the empirical objects of experiecce are really ideational constructions of one Manas-the Cosmic. Mind or Brahmā. It is the Cosmic Mind that has imagined the world-idea. The world will continue as long as is keeps on imagining and will case to exist when it stops doing so. Then the Cosmic Mind of the nature of ideation will merge into the Absolute Reality which is of the nature of pure tranquillity (Santa, nirvānamätra) and does not suffer any change or transformation
The imaginary world-appearance is known by many names-avidyā (as it is sublated by vidya), saṁsyti (as it is spread far and wide), bandha (as it is the cause of bondage), māyā (as it is unreal) and moha (as it is the cause of delusion), mahat (great, difficult to cross), and tamas (as it hides the real nature of the Ultimate Rea ity). It is also called citta, manas, and mala (impurity).1 It may be noted that the world-appearance is called avidyā or moha, though it is both the effect and the cause of these. The terms Māyā and Avidya are used synonymously as denoting an illusory appearance rather than its cause. The Yoga-Vasistha does not encourage the notion of causality even for purposes of explanation in the field of thought-construction, and hence such a use of the word "avid ya'. It is immaterial whether avidyā signifies the world-appearance or the cosmic avidyā which is its cause. (Tena jātam tato jātam itiyam racanã girām, Sāstrasamvyavahārārtham na Rāma paramärthataḥ. Yy. IV. 40. 17).
Manas, buddhi ahamkara, citta, karma, kalpana, sarsyti, vā sanā, vidya prayatna, smộti, indriya, praksti, maya, kriyā are but names emphasising 1. See Yv. III. 1. 19-20; III. 4. 47.