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Lightnings. World as Dream. Sri Aurobindo

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 Let me begin a new branch "Lightnings", with short quotations and impromptus from different authors.

If then the world is a dream or an illusion or a mistake, it is a dream originated and willed by the Self in its totality and not only originated and willed, but supported and perpetually entertained. Moreover, it is a dream existing in a Reality and the stuff of which it is made is that Reality, for Brahman must be the material of the world as well as its base and continent. If the gold of which the vessel is made is real, how shall we suppose that the vessel itself is a mirage? We see that these words, dream, illusion, are tricks of speech, habits of our relative consciousness; they represent a certain truth, even a great truth, but they also misrepresent it.

Sri Aurobindo. Life Divine. Chapter: The Methods of Vedantic Knowledge

 


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Sol said…
Hi Oscar, I didn't get what is the Gold and what is the Vessel referring to? Could you pl kindly add a bit to it? Thank you
January 7, 2024 at 9:39 PM
Oscar Enrique Muñoz said…
The vessel and the gold refer to a very old example used by Vedanta philosophers to explain the illusory state of the Universe, its Maya. According to traditional Vedanta (Sankaracharia and followers) there is only one substrate of the Universe though it is manifested in many forms. The Substrate of the Universe relates to its forms, to creation, as the gold of the goldsmith relates to the vessels and jewels created by him. For traditional Vedanta, the Universe is Real but its creatures, in all its different shapes and forms, are illusory.
Aurobindo asks: "If the gold of which the vessel is made is real, how shall we suppose that the vessel itself is a mirage? " Id est: if the Universe is nothing but Brahman and Brahman is Real, Creation is also Real, no matter the fleeting character of its forms and identities.
January 8, 2024 at 1:57 PM
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