[Advaita-l] Why only jagat is mithya and jeeva is brahman !!??

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Bhaskarji,

The question you raise is valid in terms of "what is the truth/ reality of
everything, be it ईश्वर, जगत् or जीव"? And the answer you expect as ब्रह्म
is also correct.

However, the idea in Bhagavatpadacharya's अर्धश्लोक is for the जीव to know
the truth, akin to all the महावाक्यs, which deal with the oneness of the
individual only. The questions that the individual faces are:

   1. What is this world, which I find myself a part of?
   2. Who created it?
   3. Who am I and what is my connection to the creator and the world?


The answers given are in 2nd, 1st and 3rd order of questions in the
अर्धश्लोक:

   1. The world is कार्यम्/ मिथ्या.
   2. ब्रह्म is the कारणम्/ सत्यम्.
   3. जीवः ब्रह्म एव = कारणम् एव, न अपरः = न तु कार्यम्. The individual who
   considers himself as a created just like the world, is not the created. So
   the relation of the individual is that he is one with the creator and
   therefore the सत्य्-अधिष्ठान of मिथ्या-जगत्. His complex of body, mind and
   senses is part of the created world, मिथ्या प्रपञ्च, while he is not.

If here, it is said that the world is also ब्रह्म then it would mean that
his body, mind, senses are also real! Of course, it would also mean that
there is nothing other than me, who is brahman, but that answers the
question at the level of अजातवाद where there is no creation itself, but not
in the context of the questions faced by the individual. Bhagavatpadacharya
presents them as the goal of all ग्रन्थs wherein He says श्लोकार्धेन
प्रवक्ष्यामि यदुक्तं‌ ग्रन्थकोटिभिः| ब्रह्म सत्यं जगन्मिथ्या जीवो ब्रह्मैव
नापरः || After the dawn of knowledge, at the level of व्यवहार the world
still exists *as मिथ्या* for the ज्ञानी, but the जीव exists as one with
ब्रह्म, *not as मिथ्या*. The truth of the world is no longer परोक्षब्रह्म
but the अपरोक्षब्रह्म, ज्ञानी जीव himself!

I don't know if the above helps, but that is how I understand it. To
summarize, the विवेक done here is separating oneself from all
superimpositions and equating oneself to (= understanding/ knowing as)
ब्रह्म. OTOH there is nothing to separate the world outside one's body,
etc, from, to know as ब्रह्म.

गुरुपादुकाभ्याम्,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */

On Mon, Mar 14, 2016 at 5:58 PM, Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> The jagat in advaita vedAnta is mithya why??
>
> brahma satya jaganmithya jeevo brahmaiva na paraH famouns saying goes in
> advaita though same order of statement cannot be found anywhere in
> prasthAna traya bhAshya of shankara.  I always wonder when the jeeva has
> been identified as brahman why jagat is barred from this status that too
> when advaita readily accepts that for the jagat,  brahman is the both
> upAdAna and nimitta kAraNa??