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and its finitude." That which ceases to exist cannot be said to be. That which is finite cannot be ultimate, since it is intelligible only in reference to the infinite of which it is a limitation and which alone truly exists. Illusory being arises out of reality, as a clay vessel arises out of the clay, stays in it, and disappears into it. The vessel, except for its name and form, is nothing but clay. Ontologically the world is nothing but Brahman. But the self, which is never known to cease to exist, and which is the infinite knower of all objects, is Brahman itself. It has no name or form: all we can say about its nature is that it is not this, not this. It is pure Being.
These arguments concur in the conclusion that the world is illusory and the self alone is real. When we negate all objectivity of the Being underlying all things, that Being is indistinguishable from the self which is never an object. The object represents a failure in knowledge. Knowledge must reveal the real, but any dualistic theory of knowledge based on the supposed reality of the object breaks down, because our supposed knowledge of objects is subjective, lacks self-evidence, and is subject to correction. Only the non-dualistic knowledge of the self, not mediated by sense or thought, and incapable of being reflected on or criticized, is certain. This conclusion can be elaborated by psychological studies which distinguish and describe the aspects of the soul (the witness, the individual, the ego, the intellect, the mind, the inner sense, the outer senses), the states of the soul (waking, dreaming, deep sleep, ecstasy), and the functions of the soul (knowing, feeling, willing). But such studies have no metaphysical significance, for the aspects
21 Reversing the argument to infer transiency from unreality, Malkani says that time is a necessary a priori form of the illusory world, else it could not come to an end and consequently would be as real as anything. So is space, else it could not be given and consequently would not be an object; and so is causality, else it could not be orderly and so taken to be real and consequently would not deceive us. All other properties of the world are contingent and so known only empirically, due to error and so inexplicable.
12 "All finitude, which is the very nature of appearance, has to be negated. What is left is reality as such or reality in itself, and that has no limitation of any sort. It is properly described as pure being." ("Rational Intuition," Philosophical Quarterly (July 1955), p. 118).
