Sambodhi 1983 Vol 12

Author(s): Dalsukh Malvania, H C Bhayani, Nagin J Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 22

The Advaitic Sat
commentary on the Brahmasutra (पच्चिन स्वप्नादिवत् 1 In which he clearly says that the experiences of the waking world can never be parallel to the experiences of the dream state. Here Samnkara's commentary makes it evident that the waking world is not uncal like the son of a baren woman or hare's horn etc. & that at the empirical level, it is very much real.
Samkarācārya, the main propounder and an advocate of the concept of sat has admitted it as an absolute and ultimate reality 2 It is nondual as well as supreme. There is nothing apart from this sat, the reality. Because it is eternal, different from the reality of material & worldly objects For it is all in all, therefore, no object has its independent status. This sat is the substratun (Adhışlhāna) of all the worldly and sensuous super impositions, which are asat. As in the example of Suktı Rajata, the Sukti is the substratum & the Rajata is unreal, so in the case of sat Brahman & the world, Bralıman is the only reality & the world is unieal. In this regard, one can object & say that in the example of Sukti Rajata, the silver does not exist at all in the Suktı, while the world and its objects very much exist. But it is not proper to argue, because in the state of Brahma-jñāna, the non-dual reality the dualistic knowledge of the objective world is completely negated. This is why, the above state is called the state of Brahman, Mukti & the state of truth and knowledge In this context, it must be mentioned that the state of Paramarthajñana or non-dual reality does not mean annihilation of the material objects; it only means that they are 110t apart from the Adhisthāna or Brahman. In this manner, Samkara's philosophy is the philosophy of non-duality in duality. Accordingly in his Upadeśasāhasrî, he says:
सुषुप्तवज्जाग्रति यो न पश्यति द्वय च पश्यन्नपि चाद्वथस्वतः । afa farisa 7: B laala salę fas: !
Upadeśasăhassi 10.13
Now it also becomes clear that the phenomenality of the world is admitted by the Vedāntin. prior to the state of Bralımajñāna only.
While taking note of the concept of sat, it must be kept in view that Samkara has used the word sat for indeterminate Brahman & not the determinate Tsvara, because the indeterminate Brahman is the substratum
1. Brahmansútra, i1. 2 29 2. 46.907 wafaqat 254: qarf: 1
Brahmansutra Sankarabhāsya ii 1 2