Danda 1995 - Suhotra Maharaja Archives

I was studying the second canto chapter 10 regarding how the virat purusa hadthe desire to speak then speech was manifest etc. I remember a class you gave inAmsterdam a long time ago where you were speaking on this subject and mentioneda tree in Oxford that had an inscription on to the effect that when no one isthere to see it then the tree doesn‘t exist but that someone else put there thatGod is seeing it. Could you explain this philosophy that nothing exists if thereis no one to see it and how to defeat it?Answer by Suhotra SwamiOctober 31, 1995Yes, there's a story that on one day a long time ago (this may have even beenback in the days of Bishop Berkeley) that someone pinned a note to a big tree inthe center of the Quad (a square surrounded by university buildings) at Oxford.The note said something like,"God must consider it exceeding odd,If when there is nobody about in the Quad,that this treecontinues to be."The next day another note was pinned on the tree, that stated"Your statement is oddFor even when nobody in in the QuadThe tree continues to beAs seen by MeYours truly, God."The problem dealt with in the two letters is a problem of ontology, which dealswith what is "out there" that we can know. The first letter Argus that there isnothing "out there," what we know is just our perceptions. And our perceptionsare manufactured in our consciousness. More or less this is the doctrine ofsolipsism, that "I am the only reality." The second letter argues that there isa reality "out there" that exists whether we perceive it or not. That realityexists within the perception of God.Comment by Suhotra SwamiOctober 31, 1995I looked at your question again and noticed you asked how to defeat solipsism.Here are two powerful arguments.1. "My dear solipsist, you say my view of the world is wrong. But if your viewis that you are the only conscious being, then my opposing view is also yourview, because according to you I don't exist, only your own thoughts exist, likeyour thoughts of me and my arguments. So, why do you argue with yourself? Ifyou do not agree with me on this point and continue to argue, then youcontradict your claim that everything is just your own idea."(If you are trying to sell a solipsist a book, you can follow the above argumentto this conclusion: "Here, it's your idea to buy this book and take it home andread it from cover to cover very carefully."2. "My dear solipsist, thought on its own has no practical value in helping youput any order to the experiences that make up what you suppose is your ownprivate world. You have to take help from the theories and beliefs of scienceand common sense, which tell you that the world is not your own private idea,that it existed before your birth and will continue after your death. In copingwith your experiences, you have to rely upon definitions and directions that