Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi Complete ... - BrahminVoice.org

Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi
D.: Is there that difference in the philosophy of Sankara and Gaudapada
which the learned Professor wants us to believe?
M.: The difference is only in our imagination.
D.: Sir S. Radhakrishnan writes:
“The general idea pervading Gaudapada’s work that bondage and
liberation, the individual soul and the world are all unreal, makes
a caustic critic observe that the theory which has nothing better
to say than that an unreal soul is trying to escape from an unreal
Supreme Good, may itself be an unreality. It is one thing to say that
the unchangeable reality expressing itself in the changing universe
without forfeiting its nature is a mystery, and another to dismiss
the whole changing universe as a mere mirage. If we have to play
the game of life we cannot do so with the conviction that the play
is a show and all the prizes in it are mere blanks. No philosophy
can consistently hold such a theory and be at rest with itself. The
greatest condemnation of such a theory is that we are obliged to
occupy ourselves with objects the existence and value of which
we are continually denying in theory. It only shows that there is
something else which includes and transcends the world but it does
not imply the world is a dream.”
M.: As was already said, the purpose of the whole philosophy is to
indicate the underlying Reality whether of the jagrat, svapna and
sushupti states, or the individual souls, the world and God.
There are three outlooks possible:-
(1) The Vyavaharika: The man sees the world in all its variety,
surmises the creator and believes in himself as the subject. All these
are thus reduced to the three fundamentals, jagat, jiva and Isvara. He
learns the existence of the creator and tries to reach him in order to
gain immortality. If one is thus released from bondage, there are all
other individuals existing as before who should work out their own
salvation. He more or less admits the One Reality underlying all these
phenomena. The phenomena are due to the play of maya. Maya is the
sakti of Isvara or the activity of Reality. Thus, existence of different
souls, objects, etc., do not clash with the advaitic point of view.
(2) The Pratibhasika: The jagat, jiva and Isvara are all cognised
by the seer only. They do not have any existence independent of
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