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Ram Murti Sarma It would be proper to say that in the eyes of Sankaia, who very much believes in the external character of the world, the would is mere illusion and not only thus, in his commentary of the Mandukyakārikā (2.4), he says that the experiences of the waking state are similar to the experiences of the dieam state He has also mentioned in his Brahmasūtrabhäsya that after the realization of Brahman, there remains no scopo for the operation of other meaus of knowledge like perception Tlic fact is that as soon as the state of right knowledgc comes, thc fccling of dualty ends and therefore, in this state of non dualısu, there remains 10 reason. for the functioning of perception etc. Here one can dised question that how Sankara can vouchsafe his position to say that in the state of right knowledge, the knowledge of Brahman, the functioning of perception comes to an end No body can deny the fact that cveniji the state of jivanmukti, the existence of the external objects and the sense of contact with them is quite natural Then how Sankala says that in the state of right knowledge the functioning of perception etc comes to in end!. Here the follower of Sankara Vedānta will answc that no doubt the worldly objects remain as such in the state of ical knowledge, but this fact is to be kept in mind that in that state there is no feeling like 'this is mine' or 'this is yours' and it is in this spiul that the operation of function etc. comes to an end in the state of real knowledge Actually by Sankara, the experiences of empirical state are likend to the experiences of the dream state, which seem to be quite real prior to the waking The same way, the experiences of waking state seem to be quite real prior to the state of final knowledge. But after the right knowledge, the experiences of waking state find no place at all.
C-Comme .ting on the above Advaitic thinking, scholars fear to find a controversy in the philosophy of Sankara, and say that at one place, in Mändūkyakärikäbhāsya, Sankara likens the experiences of the waking state to that of dream state and at another place, in his bhäsya of the aphorism "vaidharm'occa na s:apnádivat" maintains that the experiences of the waking world can never be parallel to the experiences of the dream state 2 Really speaking this is not the case of self contradiction. Sankara in his kärika bhāsya, when he describes the experiences of the waking state as similar to the experiences of drcam state, stresses on the point that in the waking state, the experiences of the dream state are proved completely false and thus the experiences of the dream state are negated by the experiences of the waking state alone 1. Jāgrad diyānāti bhāvānāın vaitathyamiti pratijnā drysyat väditi hetuh svapnit
bhálavaditi drstāntah, 11, S B. G. K. 2-4. 2. Na svapnádipratyayavajjāgratpratyayā bhavitumarbanti B.S.S.B 2-2-29
