[Advaita-l] Maya and Pralaya

[latha vidya]

venkat ramanan krishnan <krish_venks at hotmail.com> wrote:

2)That being the case, can we say that Bhakti is more like a psychological 
effect on the soul? with no actual changes taking place anywhere. Favour of 
deities, boons and demons can be metaphoraically compared to a person who 
thinks something is wrong with him, conjures up a doctor mentally, thinks he 
is being cured by the doctor(a deity if the doctor gives a sweet medicine, a 
demon if the doctor gives him a sour medicine, but both for his own good), 
and finally realizing that there was nothing wrong in him, that there was no 
doctor, that everything was a hallucination(maya)
Or, can we say that the soul starts from the point of veneration of some 
deities which possess some ideals (that the soul thinks is not in itself), 
and then proceeds to higher ideals(deities) till finally reaching a point of 
saturation, where it has everything and realizes that there is nothing more, 
and that it had everything in it all along.( knowledge, truth and infinity). 
All this is essentially psychological for the soul, since the soul has been 
in that state(brahman) all along and only doesnt think so.

Hari Om,
Namaste.
 
yes, verily so. This is known as "adhyaaropa apavaada", ie, putting blame on something which is blemishless purely out of our ignorance. Another anology can be  - the floor is clean and I put some mud over it and try to sweep it clean!
 

Finally, what is meant by pralaya? How does Advaita explain the creation and 
destruction of the universe philosophically? Why does the Brahman delude 
itself into thinking that it is many, time and again, and that its many 
parts are imperfect each trying for perfection ?


If we believe Creation has taken place, we need to believe there is Pralaya too! For a realized soul, there never was any creation and hence no pralaya ever!

Everytime when I fall asleep and enter the deep sleep state nothing exists for me. Isn't this pralaya? Again when I wake up I see the world. Isn't this the creation?? This is the nitya srishti and nitya pralaya.


Namaste,

Latha Vidyaranya

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