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III. VI]
AVIDYA IN THE VEDANTA SCHOOL
119
objection Gaudapāda says: 'The birth of the non-existent is not reasonable at all through māyā or in reality. The son of a barren woman is not born either through māyā or in reality.'1 The same ināyā as is responsible for the appearance of duality in dream is responsible for the appearance of duality in the waking state. As the mind is indeed advaya (without a second) in dream, exactly so is the mind advaya (without a second) even in the waking state. The dvaita (duality) in whatever form, comprising the movable and the unmovable, is perceived by the mind (manas). But when the mind becomes nonmind (i.e. ceases to exist and function as a mind), duality ceases to be experienced." When the self is realized as the sole reality, the mind ceases to be because then there is nothing external which it can conceive. The mind's occupation is gone with the cessation of what can be apprehended. The meaning seems to be this: "The mind conjures up various things which it seems to apprehend so long as it fails to realize the ultimate truth which is One Absolute. But when the self is realized to be identical with the Absolute, the multiplicity of phenomena with which the mind occupies itself disappears like the objects of dream. The mind also as distinct from the self disappears like fire without fuel.' In other words, everything that appears as other than the self is false and unreal and is bound to vanish. This is also the case with the mind itself quâ other than the self.4 Gaudapāda describes the Absolute in the following terms: "The ultimate reality is the Absolute which has to be realized. It is unborn and eternal. Time has no relation to it. It is the ultimate knowable and this knowledge is bound to dissolve the whole fabric of illusion built by māyā. But the knowledge of the Absolute is equally eternally existent and without birth and death. It is not bipolar like our empirical cognitions. It is pure consciousness without subject-object determination (akalpakam). It is identical with the Absolute—its object. So the realization of the Absolute is effected by eternal unborn consciousness and thus the unborn is said to be known by the unborn.'s Reality is one, unborn
1 asa to māyayā janma tattvato nai 'va yujyate vandhya-putro na tattvena māyayā vä 'pi jāyate.
-ĀS, III. 28. 2 AS, III. 29-30. It should, however, be noticed in this connection that Gauda pāda recognizes distinction between the objects of the waking experience and those of dreams (vide AS, II. 13-15). While the objects of waking experience are common to us all, those of the dreams belong exclusively to the dreamer.
3 manodrśyam idam dvaitam yat kiñcit sacarácaram manaso hy amanibhāve dvaitam nai 'vo 'palabhyate.
-ĀS, III. 31. 4 ĀS, III. 32. 5 Cf. akalpakam ajam jñānam jñeyābhinnam pracakşate
brahma jñeyam ajar nityam ajenä 'jam vibudhyate.-AS, III. 33.
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