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Shri Mahavir Jain Aradhana Kendra
www.kobatirth.org
Acharya Shri Kailashsagarsuri Gyanmandir
The Systems of Rāmānuja .....
397
manas, and the intellect. It is that which wills, acts (karts), and enjoys the pleasurable and the painful experiences. To such jivas bound to the mundane life and its pleasurable and painful experiences, the omniscience and the bliss of the Divine are unknown. They have a very narrow vision of the world, and therefore, they develop attachments to the objects of the world. They are deceived by the paraphernalia of the mundane objects. As Ghate says the infatuating ignorance affects the jiva and presents to it the real and actually existing world with illusory or unreal forms. While the world is real it is only its experience (pratīti-stafa) which is erroneous. The world has objectivity for us, but it is essentially of the nature of Bhagavān and so is purely subjective; but it is only the objectivity with which the jiva endows the world that is unreal and it is projected by ignorance.' Thus the experience of the world is mistaken and the mistaken view of the soul about itself and about the world constitutes ignorance or avidyā. The world is real but its understanding is wrong and distorted. Thus avidya has only subjective existence for the knower and his acts remain faulty and defective as long as his view remains mistaken. The same world, therefore, appears differently to different persons. Ghate, therefore, says "Thus, this prapañca, which is real, appears to be in three different forms to three different kinds of persons : (i) to those who have become Brahman, it appears as pure Brahman;
1 Gbate V. S. : Vedānta, p. 36.
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