[Advaita-l] How can one claim to know Brahman?

Ravi Mayavaram ravi at ambaa.org
Wed Mar 9 18:04:38 CST 2005


Our knowledge does not come from such claims, but it comes from shruti. 
If shruti says brahman is Ananda and not duHkha, then so it is. So the 
authority is  shruti alone.



Mahesh Ursekar wrote:
> Esteemed readers,
> 
> The seers say that when one realizes Bramhman, the knower, the knowing
> and know become one. In that is indeed true, then when one returns to
> the normal state, how can one claim that Brahman was experienced as
> Sat-chit-ananda? That claim can only be made if the knower was
> different from the known during the experience.
> 
> One philosopher I conversed with said that the situation is similar to
> the deep sleep state wherein one is aware of it even after the
> experience as in the claim - "I had a deep sleep last night". However,
> my objection to that is that nobody can describe the state of deep
> sleep or how one felt while in that state - one can only claim to
> being in that state after feeling refreshed the next day. However, in
> the case of realization, one can describe, however inaccurately, the
> experience one had during that state.
> 
> Can anyone explain this conundrum?
> 



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