The state of Advaitins, who have misunderstood Shankara, is really pitiable

[dattaswami]

The state of Advaitins, who have misunderstood Shankara, is really pitiable

 

 

204. Drugantaah shochaniyaah druguhayorbhedaat.

 

Translation: The Advaitins who keep the sight as the ultimate truth are really pitiable since there is a lot of difference between sight and imagination.

 

Explanation: The state of Advaitins, who have misunderstood Shankara, is really pitiable. They are keeping the sight (Druk) or awareness as the absolute truth and trying to discuss the entire philosophy around it. They have taken the granddaughter who is just a kid and are treating this kid as the grandmother! They are so confused that they treat the mother and grandmother as the issues of the granddaughter! They feel that the awareness has generated the God taken as the human incarnation and also the primordial energy. They say that the awareness created the cosmic energy and the cosmos in which the human incarnation is also a product. The sight involves practical implementation, whereas the imagination involves theoretical assumptions. You can say that the wall is relatively real with respect to God existing in the form of Shankara. This is your imagination. Shankara crossed the bolted doors of the house of Mandana Mishra proving this concept. You can mention this point and imagine the relative reality of creation including primordial energy with respect to God (Shankara). By such imagination, your sight has not reached the state of that imagination so that you can also pass through the bolted doors. Hence, you are not God (Shankara). Shankara proved this by swallowing molten lead and asking His disciples to do the same. The disciples failed to do that because their imagination and practical sight are quite different. In the case of Shankara, being God in the absolute plane, the imagination and sight become one and the same, since the entire world including primordial energy is just imagination of God. When you see something in your imaginary world that also remains as imagination only and hence, your sight and imagination are one and the same in your imaginary world. But when you see something in the world, your sight is not your imagination since this world is not your imagination.