Makaranda
Active Member
If Shankara, the Jnani, sees oneness, he should not be able to see and talk to other people (He cannot see himself either as that would introduce the difference between seer and seen).
You have confused (sense)perception and knowledge. When the jnani "sees" oneness, it means he knows there is oneness. His sense perception is the same as the ajnani (the senses only know external objects, which are always many), but, unlike the ignorant ones, he has the inner eye of wisdom, the jnana chakshu, which has recognised the essential unity behind the appearance of diversity. His understanding has been corrected, not his perception. It is not perception which is the cause of samsAra, it is ignorance (which distorts it), and the remedy for ignorance is knowledge. So perception does not need to be changed or removed. When a man perceives a rope and through ignorance thinks that it is a snake, it is the ignorance which has to be knocked off through knowledge that it is, in fact, a rope. The perception itself will continue, cleared of errors. He still goes on perceiving the rope, but now he has no delusion or fear about it. In the same way the jnani seems to transact with the world, the body goes on exhausting its karma, but he knows he is Brahman, untouched, the being of everything, and there is nothing but Brahman.
If you say he sees both oneness and also the differences that we see, this is not Advaita.
It is Advaita, for the differences are mithyA, and the oneness alone is the real vastu (and there is no second vastu). The transactional world (vyavaharika) has no independent reality. When the cause is known, all of the effects are known, too, because they are non-different from the cause. They are swallowed up, as it were, in the cause. Only the cause remains, despite appearances.
You seem to be wrangling a lot with the more technical aspects of Advaita. My sincere recommendation for you would be to go to the Advaita Academy or Advaita Vision websites which clear up a lot of the basic confusions. Or, better yet, find a teacher\study what the Advaitins themselves have to say on the issues you have. There are plenty of resources out there.
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