SAIVA-SIDDHANTA

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tenuous : are not all these summed up in the simple sentence
Nachichchitsannidhau
", uj/raoa/tt/u) (^GSTUULZ f^Q^fHr In the
t
presence of the Sat, every thing else is stinyam (non-existent
non-apparent ?
Saint Meykanda
Deva adds As before the Perfect and
Eternal Intelligence, the imperfect and acquired intelligence
(falsehood) is shorn of its light, it is therefore established that in
the presence of the Sat, Asat loses its light."
And the illustration
implied in this, is amplified in the following verse,
Evil (Asat)
ceases to exist before Him, as does darkness before the Sun."
The term Asat has itself been the parent of many misconceptions,
in the East and in the West, and different interpreters of
Sankara explain
it in different ways. Here is what a critic of
Paul Deussen says,
is mostly credited with having
proved that there is something behind or beneath the "reality
of our senses, which these cannot fathom. The
(<9ffpp<3ujiT).
European scientists say sneeringly What of that : ;
if we cannot
get at it, let us ignore
it ! And on the other hand, the
Neo-Kantian Metaphysicians say
:
No, this is the only reality ;
therefore, all the rest is useless rubbish, only fit for momentary
amusement : and that is all.
is the Western conception of the Indian term Maya
(Asat), indeed a rubbish conception. And mistaken by this
illusion, Western philosophers have declared that Eastern
philosophy and particularly Vedantism and Buddhism, are
*Akosmism i.e., they deny the existence of the universe
altogether. An incredible absurdity Is not the real meaning
!
of Sankara easy enough to understand ? Every one knows that
there are different states of consciousness ;
that of an animal is
different from that of a man, that of a savage different from
that of a savant, that of a waking rnan different from that
of a dreaming man, and all these are different from that of
a sage in Samadhi. Now, it is a matter of course, that the
reality of a waking man is different from that reality which
he conceives as such when he is
dreaming, and both are
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