For the Intellectual Discourse :Is Life a Delusion or Are We Deluded ?
A Critique of Advaita Vedanta By Dr.K.Loganathan - The Summary
1.0 Vedanta in Tamil
By Vedanta is meant essentially the study of the Upanishads particularly the so-called Maha Vakkyas and the metaphysical elucidations they inspire. These Maha Vakkyas are “akam Brahmam Asmi” ‘Ta Twam Asi’ and so forth. The most famous is of course the Vedanta Sutras of BadarayaNa where the different schools of Vedanta, the Advaita, Vishtatvaita, Dwaita and so forth emerge as commentaries to this Vedanta Sutras. Among these it is the commentary of Ati Sankara (dated around 800 AD) that is called Advaita Vedanta and which is the subject matter of this critique.
However long before Ati Sankara we hear of Vedanta and the Maha Vakkyas in Tirumular;s Tirumantiram dated around 600 AD or so. There we find extensive discussions of the meaning of the Maha Vakkyas where Tirumular offers his own interpretations that he calls Siddhanta Vedantam i.e the meaning of Vedantic Maha Vakkyas according to Saiva Siddhanta. It is interesting in all these extensive studies of Vedanta as such, there is no mention of Advaita Vedanta of Ati Sankara in Tirumantiram that suggests that Ati Sankara came into the world much later and where the date 800 AD seems to be reasonable.
2.0 Vedanta in Meykanda Sastras
While Tirumular announced the Fundamental Ontology of Pati Pasu Pasam as a great and well founded metaphysical inspiration, it was Meykandar (13th Cent AD) who established it as a TRUTH by transforming metaphysics itself as the most inclusive Hermeneutic Science with a Hermeneutic Logic , the Virutti KaNdikai as the method. The very fact of the triadic Fundamental Ontology (Pati Pasu Pasam) is already a deconstruction of the monistic Advaita Vedanta. But nevertheless Meykandar actually mentions the word ‘advaita’ and claims that the very meaning of the word implicates a substantial difference between the soul and BEING(Brahman) though at the point of Moksa the soul is in essence the same as BEING remaining however different as a substance.
Deconstructions for ‘advaita’ are carried out in greater detail by AruNandi in his massive and magnificent Siddhyar and Umapathy in his very erudite SaGkaRpa NirakaraNam. Many other Saiva Siddhanta philosophers have done something similar and continued to do so until the 16th Cent AD and after which the situation changes dramatically.
3.0 Original Vedanta Literature in Tamil
For a variety of reasons -- one being the loss of political power of the native Tamils with the collapse of the Cholas and Pandiyas, we have sanskritization of Tamil culture and replacing the native philosophic culture with that of the Sanskrit. It is at this time that great books on Advaita Vedanta begin to appear in chaste Tamil authored both by Tamil scholars as well as Brahmins. This begins with the Kaivalya Navaneethan of TaNdava Rayer Swamigal followed by many treatises by the prolific Tattuvarayar who composed Tatvamirtam, Casivanna Botham Amirthsaram and so forth. There are many others but the most widely studied remains Kalvalya Navaneetham(KN) which has also seen many commentaries some very erudite in indeed. For the purpose of this critique I shall take up this KN with many commentaries and show that this advaitic interpretation of the Upanishadic Maha Vakkyas is untenable and that there are other interpretations possible that do not imply the Monism of Ati Sankara that comes along with the claim that the world as we know is a Mythya a delusion.
4.0 Kalvalya Navaneethana(KN)
Kalvalya Navaneethana(KN) which is written by Tandava Rayer SwamikaL(TRS) is not a translation of some Vedantic treatises in Sk but rather an original composition written around the 15 th Cent AD and which has three different commentaries to it. The first is that of AruNasala SwamikaL of the 19th cent AD and which was followed by the Virutti , a massive and very erudite commentary by Ramalingka Yogikal also of the 19th Cent AD. More recently i.e. in 1993 there was another elegant and simple commentary by VidvanNarayaNa VeluppiLLai .
Kalvalya Navaneethana(KN)= a book as the Ghee (Navaneetam) that would grant Moksa (kaivalyam) to any one who would study it carefully and with utmost respect
ஆம் இம்மனைவி மக்கள் ஆர்த்த ஈடணைகள் மூன்றில்
கானவர் வலையிற் பட்டுக் கைதப்பி ஓடு மான் போல்
போனவன் வெறுங்கையோடே போகாத வண்ணம் சென்று
ஞானசற்குருவைக் கண்டு நன்றாக வணங்கினானே
Aam immanaivi makkaL aarttta iidaNaikaL munRil
Kaanavar valaiyiR padduk kaitappi oodu maan pool
Poonavan veRuGkaiyoodee pookaata vaNNam cenRu
Njaana caRkuruvaik kaNdu nanRaaka vaNaGkinaanee
Meaning
A man came seeking the metaphysical wisdom from a True Guru non empty-handed like a deer that managed to escape the net of the hunters in the forest, escaping from family of wife and children all because of the basic three instinctual pressures. He stood awaiting the grace of the Guru praying fervently in all humility.
Advaita Vedanta is expounding that all existential miseries will disappear with the self-identifying itself as the Brahman and thus frees itself from the delusion a total escapism of life. The primordial delusion is that self identifies itself as the physical body and which delusion must be shown to be what is viz, a delusion. Thus it is indicated that a Delusion Creating Mechanism (DCM) which in fact deludes the person into thinking that he is the physical body and that he is destined only to live the materialist existence and that also involves being thrown into embodied existence endlessly.
But how does the Vedanti justify the TRUTH and REALITY of DCM?
Several typical examples are also given to illustrate and validate the reality of DCM such the rope appearing as a snake, the conch shell mistaken for silver, the mirage under the hot sun, a stump appearing like a person under dim light the Pure Space appearing as divided,. self is actually that which enjoys dreams and dreamless sleep and that it is due to a delusion that you remain identifying yourself with the physical body and so forth.
The essence of Advaita Vedanta emerges in the following two verses.
26. அத்தியாரோபம் என்றும் அபவாதம் என்றும் சொல்லும்
உத்தியால் பந்தம் வீடென்று உரைக்கும் வேதாந்தம் எல்லாம்
மித்தையால் ஆரோபத்தால் பந்தமாம் அபவாதத்தான்
முத்தியாம் இவ்விரண்டின் முந்தி ஆரோபிதம் கேளாய்
Attiyaaroopam enRum abavaatam enRum collum
Uttiyaal pantam viidenRum uraikkum veetaantam ellaam
Mittaiyaal aaroopattaal pantamaam abavaattaan
Muttiyaam ivviraNdin munti aaroobitam keeLaay
27. ஆரோபம் அத்தியாசம் கற்பனை ஆவ எல்லாம்
ஓர்ரொர் வஸ்த்துவினை வேறே ஓரோர் வஸ்துவென ஓர்தல்
நாரூடு பணியாத் தோன்றல் நரனாகத் தறியில் தோன்றல்
நீரூடு கானல் தோன்றல் நிரந்தரம் வெளியில் தோன்றல்
Aaroobam attiyaasam kaRpanai aava ellaam
Oorror vasttuvinai veeRee ooroor vasttuvena oortal
Naaruudu paNiyaat toonRal naranaakat taRiyil toonRal
Niiruudu kaanal toonRal nirantaram veLiyil toonRal
Meaning (combining both verses)
The Vedanta texts outline two strategies in existence viz the delusion creating mechanisms of attiyaasam and Aroobitam and the delusion freeing mechanism of Abavatam. The self identification with the physical body and suffering worldly existence is due to Delusions such as
Aroobitam Attiyasam and so forth. Moksa comes with Abavatam, the destruction of this delusion.
Of these let me first explain what is DCM. When an object is seen other than what it is in fact then we have a delusion illusion and so forth. This happens for example when a rope is seen as a snake, a wooden stump appears as a person, the seeing of mirages where pools of water are seen in the heat and non discontinuous space is seen in an ordinary spatial expanse.
Thus there is a DCM and because of which a person wrongly and as a delusion identifies himself as a physical body where as a matter of fact he is actually Brahman itself. As a follow up on this comes the famous and specifically Vedantic assertion of the World is Mythiya i.e. not real and only because of the workings of DCM that is it thought to be real and so forth.
5.0 The Self is Brahman
The fundamental claim of Advaita Vedanta is that the self is actually Brahman and that it is only because of the workings of DCM that there is a feeling of individual selves quite distinct from Brahman and so forth.
There are NO individual selves--- all are Brahman and it is only because of delusion that a person thinks he is different from Brahman. Brahman is seen as a collectivity of individual and independent selves. The selves are actually like the different reflections of the one and same Sun in different pots full of water. Mithya i.e the world as a collection of names and forms is an illusion, just an appearance created by the DCM, a superimposition on the single absolute Radiance Brahman .
6.0 The Denial of DCM Justification.
In the typical rope example, while the rope perception destroys the snake imposition, the reverse does not happen- there is an asymmetry here. There is stability in the rope perception while there is only instability on the snake perception. Furthermore there is a fundamental difference in the epistemic quality. While snake perception might have raised the issue of truth and falsity till it recedes, this is not the case with the rope perception. It remains stable and raises the question about the TRUTH of the perception where it is said to be true by all if it is a fact and not so if it is not. The delusion such as the snake perception annuls this epistemic possibility for it cannot be communicated and its TRUTH value affirmed. This is precisely the reason why the snake-perception is said to be delusory while the rope perception not.
Self as the dreamer and the one who also enjoys the dreamless sleep cannot be this body for obviously the physical body does not dream at all. In saying “I am tall” the person identifies himself with the body but in saying “I am scared” he is saying that he is a psychic entity quite different from body. There is no delusion at all and if it is a delusion then the distinction between nomalcy and abnormality is not maintained.
There is a fundamental difference between seeing and sensing or sensorial perceptions. For one thing ‘seeing’’ is intentional and for another what is seen is appropriated as a TEXT with its characteristic DUALITY of structure i.e. the Surface Structure(physical structure) and Deep Structure(psychological structure) and which brings in the Pedagogic Hermeneutics of Tolkaappiyar (Nuun NeRi) and so forth.When a person sees and names an object ( This is a dog etc ), it is not simply because of sensing but allowing the various sense-data impinge upon the senses. In such a sensing or percept there will not be a consciousness of an object as such and such. For the psychic entity a selectivity is always present in the seeings and which discloses the presence of INTENTIONALITY regulating the selectivity and hence the object- perception (the SavikaRpa form of consciousness).
Now the presence of intentionality grounding the seeings also follows from the fact that there is temporality of psychological time consciousness, the Intentional Time or the KuRippuk Kaalam of Tolkaappiyar. Such a temporality of time consciousness is NOT an epiphenomenon of the various kinds material processes including here the neurological and so forth.
There is no delusion in the substantial reality and individuality of selves and that even in Moksa the self exists as distinct from BEING(Brahman) but enjoys the same SEEING as that of BEING(Brahman). It is this sameness of SEEING that accounts for the sense of oneness in Moksa but which oneness is ARivattuvitam and NOT the PoruLattuvitam, the oneness of substance as proposed by the Monism of Sankara’s Maya Vatam. So far we have seen that there is no justification for invoking the Delusion Creating Mechanism in our metaphysical explorations and that what matters is the widening and deepening of visions, the seeings .
7.0 Advaities are Deluded
In the extension of the workings of Delusion Creating Mechanism to the whole universes of names and forms the Advaities invoke the Maka Vakkyas “Aham Brahmam Asmi’ and Tat Twam Asi’ and so forth and say that only these Maka Vakkyas are Satyam, Absolutely True all else being asattiyam- not true. They also interpret these Maka Vakkyas to mean and equation of Atman and Brahman and NOT an identification of atman with Brahman(BEING).
The Maka Vakkyas are neither true nor false for they are not statements or propositions but rather verbalizations of Fundamental Intentionality, what the souls intend to become at the limiting point. The self to be is projected as its own possibility and when the self-grabs it and seeks to become that where virtually it can say “ I want to become X’ or “I am X” then there comes to prevail an INTENTION that sustains its behavior till it becomes in fact the projected. Both are in fact statements of Fundamental Intentionality where the self as the Supreme Self, the self that has freed itself of the vision delimiting Malam seeks now to identify itself with BEING(Brahman).
Advaities are in fact deluded into thinking that the Maha Vakkyas mean Monism i.e. the substantial identity of Atman and Brahman where else the TRUTH is self identification with BEING on becoming the Supreme Self. Now since a delusion disappears on seeing the TRUTH, so it is here: once we see the TRUTH that self becoming the Supreme Self identifies itself with BEING(Brahman) the equation of Atman and Brahman, the monistic interpretation disappears just like the snake-perception disappears when the rope-perception returns.
Thus it becomes clear that the Advaities have deluded themselves in interpreting the meaning of Maha Vakkyas the way they have done and have deluded the whole intellectual world a victim of their DCM. Thus it becomes very clear that the Monism of Advaita Vedanta is not only untenable but highly injurious and self contradict to genuine metaphysical life as it uproots the reality of the GENIUS world and the deities and hence Tamil religious culture itself.
8.0 Saiva Siddhanta
Thus we see an asymmnetry in the dynamics of the souls and BEING where BEING shows the souls see and LEARN and thereby destroy the inherent ignorance and with that acquire the higher and higher visions- the establishment of Natural Living Pedagogy. The SHOWING by BEING serves as a PULL unto higher and higher visions and hence higher metaphysical worlds.
Here when we raise the question: Why the souls have to LEARN, destroy ignorance and thus access the higher kinds of visions and all as SHOWN by BEING, we see the souls unlike BEING are infected with Malam, a DARKNESS creating stuff that BLINDS the souls or delimits and circumscribes their visions and annihilating their skills of sustainability.While BEING is FREE of this Malam i..e is Nimalam , the souls are not- they are Samalan, inherently infected with Malam.
This Malam and related metaphysical entities are the Pacas, the fetters that bind the souls to the phenomenal world delimiting their visions. The souls LEARN because of the SHOWING of BEING and which showing provides the various projects for the souls and hence the motivational dynamics. The soul through such learning slowly frees itself of this Malam and thus become the Supreme Self (Not by substance but by SEEING) and at which point BEING graces the soul with its own SEEING thus bringing to a closure the whole of the evolutionary movement of the soul across various of births.
This is the MEANING of creation- why the world as such and existence for the souls as embodied creatures and so forth. The Intellectually Designed Cosmos is not a DELUSION to fool the souls and where the souls are not actually Brahman but deceived by the DCM into thinking otherwise. The individual selves are Anati, uncreated and eternal and because already infected with Malam require the Dance of Siva(BEING) to redeem themselves and enjoy Moksa and with that escape from being thrown into endless existential repetition.
This is Saiva Siddhanta in essence where it deconstructs again the Advaita Vedanta of Ati Sankara retold here by TRS and many others.
Note: With author’s permission, extracted and summarized from
original article at https://sites.google.com/site/meykandasastras/critique-vedanta
by Dr.Siva.