[Advaita-l] [advaitin] The Three states/types of Reality (sattaa-traividhyam) - Taittiriya Shankara Bhashya

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 at 11:38 PM, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Jan, 2026, 11:06 pm Michael Chandra Cohen, <
> michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > namaste subbuji, It's not Chatgpt that is adding anything, but rather
> that
> > the traditional presentation of the three levels of reality is a later
> > schema.not found in PTB systematically.
> > Your one Tait reference is not sufficient to establish the three-level
> > ontology as a systematic doctrine in the Upanishads or Shankara's
> Bhashya..

Why?


> > That's confirmed by
> SSS, Hacker, Alston,
> > and a host of other objective observers not just CHATGPT
>
> >
>
> Then all of them are the candidates for Shankara's censure in the Gita
> Bhashyam:
>
>  // Those despite their scholarship in many disciplines, who have not
> understood this Vedanta in accordance with the tradition,
> are to be rejected like an ignorant one is. //


Yes ji. Either we reject taittirīya upaniṣad and nāsadīya sūkta or we
reject SSS and chatGPT. Following the LEM, I prefer to accept
taittirīya upaniṣad and nāsadīya sūkta and reject SSS/chatGPT models
trained on the English Vedanta of Alston and Hacker.

>

>
> Regards
>
> >
> > On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 12:17 PM V Subrahmanian <
> v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> Chat gpt does not know that neither the shruti nor Shankara posit three
> >> types of ontological realities. The absolute reality is only one. That
> one
> >> alone has appeared into the vyavaharika and the error-based
> events/objects
> >> in the world. What is Chat gpt adding to this? Nothing.
> >>
> >> On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 6:06 PM Michael Chandra Cohen <
> >> michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >>> Namaste Subbuji
> >>> I've prompted Chatgpt to offer this reply,
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> Thank you for collecting these references and especially for
> >>> highlighting Śaṅkara’s gloss on *“satyam cānṛtam ca satyam abhavat”* in
> >>> Taittirīya 2.6.1. The distinction you draw between *paramārthika* and
> >>> *vyāvahārika* is certainly helpful pedagogically.
> >>>
> >>> That said, one caution may be worth adding.
> >>>
> >>> The presentation risks suggesting that the *three-level scheme
> >>> (paramārthika–vyāvahārika–prātibhāsika)* is explicitly taught by the
> >>> Śruti itself. Textually, however, this taxonomy does not appear in the
> >>> Upaniṣads as a formal doctrine, nor does Śaṅkara introduce it as an
> >>> ontological stratification of reality.
> >>>
> >>> In the Taittirīya bhāṣya, for example, Śaṅkara does not posit “levels
> of
> >>> being.” Rather, he restricts the *scope of the word satya*
> contextually:
> >>>
> >>> व्यवहारविषयमापेक्षिकं सत्यम् … एकमेव हि परमार्थसत्यं ब्रह्म
> >>>
> >>> Here *vyāvahārika satya* simply means “empirically valid for
> >>> transactional purposes,” like water contrasted with a mirage; it does
> not
> >>> denote a second grade of reality. Ontologically speaking, he is
> explicit: *Brahman
> >>> alone is real; everything else has only dependent or borrowed status
> >>> (mithyā).*
> >>>
> >>> So in Śaṅkara the terms function *epistemically and pedagogically*, not
> >>> as a three-tier metaphysics. The later “three orders of reality”
> framework
> >>> is a convenient explanatory schema developed by the tradition, but it
> >>> should not be read back into the Śruti or into Śaṅkara as if he were
> >>> proposing a graded ontology.
> >>>
> >>> Framed this way, the passage reinforces his consistent method: not
> >>> constructing intermediate realities, but progressively sublating all
> >>> empirical standpoints into non-dual Brahman.
> >>> ------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> 🙏🙏🙏
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Jan 28, 2026 at 6:29 AM V Subrahmanian <
> v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> >>> wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> This post has the Bhashya, Sureshwarachar's Taittiriya Bh.Vartika,
> >>>> Vanamala and Sayana Bhashya:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/2010/02/17/paramarthika-vyavaharika-satyam/
> >>>>
> >>>> In the Bhashya, Shankara specifies three types of 'reality' based on
> >>>> the Taittiriya mantra: *सत्यं च अनृतं च सत्यमभवत् . *For Vedantins,
> >>>> the Taittiriya Upanishad is the Pramana for the Three types of
> reality.
> >>>>
> >>>> The Bhashya for the above passage is:
> >>>>
> >>>>  सत्यं च व्यवहारविषयम् , अधिकारात् ; न परमार्थसत्यम् ; एकमेव हि
> >>>> परमार्थसत्यं ब्रह्म । इह पुनः व्यवहारविषयमापेक्षिकं सत्यम् ,
> >>>> मृगतृष्णिकाद्यनृतापेक्षया उदकादि सत्यमुच्यते । अनृतं च तद्विपरीतम् ।
> किं
> >>>> पुनः ? एतत्सर्वमभवत् , सत्यं परमार्थसत्यम् ; किं पुनस्तत् ? ब्रह्म,
> ‘सत्यं
> >>>> ज्ञानमनन्तं ब्रह्म’ इति प्रकृतत्वात् ।
> >>>>
> >>>> SSS translates the Bhashya thus:
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> (ಭಾಷ್ಯಾರ್ಥ)
> >>>>  ಸತ್ಯವು ಎಂದರೆ ವ್ಯವಹಾರವಿಷಯವಾದ ಸತ್ಯವು ; ಏಕೆಂದರೆ (ವ್ಯವಹಾರದ ವಿಷಯದ್ದೇ) ಈ
> >>>> ಪ್ರಕರಣವು. (ಇದು) ಪರಮಾರ್ಥಸತ್ಯವಲ್ಲ ; ಏಕೆಂದರ ಪರಮಾರ್ಥಸತ್ಯವಾದ ಬ್ರಹ್ಮವು ಒಂದೇ,
> >>>> ಇಲ್ಲಿಯೋ ಎಂದರೆ ವ್ಯವಹಾರ ವಿಷಯವಾದ ಬಿಸಿಲುಕುದುರೆಯ (ನೀರ) ಮುಂತಾದ ಅನೃತಕ್ಕೆ
> ಹೋಲಿಸಿದರೆ
> >>>> (ಸತ್ಯ) ವಾಗುವ  ಆಪೇಕ್ಷಿಕವಾಗಿರುವ ನೀರು ಮುಂತಾದದ್ದನ್ನೇ ಸತ್ಯ ಎಂದು
> ಕರೆದಿರುತ್ತದೆ.
> >>>> ಮತ್ತು ಇದಕ್ಕೆ ವಿರುದ್ಧವಾಗಿರುವದು ಅನೃತವು.
> >>>>
> >>>> (ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ :-) ಇದೆಲ್ಲವೂ ಆದದ್ದು ಯಾವದು ?
> >>>> (ಉತ್ತರ :-) ಸತ್ಕವು ; ಪರಮಾರ್ಥಸತ್ಯವು.
> >>>> (ಪ್ರಶ್ನೆ :-) ಆ (ಪರಮಾರ್ಥಸತ್ಯ )ವೆಂಬುದಾದರೂ ಯಾವದು ?
> >>>>
> >>>> 2. ಹೋಲಿಕೆಯ ಸತ್ಯ, ನೀರು ಬಾಯಾರಿಕೆಯನ್ನು ಹಿಂಗಿಸುತ್ತದೆ ; ಬಿಸಿಲು ಕುದುರೆಯ ನೀರು
> >>>> ಹಿಂಗಿಸುವದಿಲ್ಲ ಆದ್ದರಿಂದ ನೀರು ಆಪೇಕ್ಷಿಕಸತ್ಯ ; ಬಿಸಿಲು ಕುದುರೆಯ ನೀರು ಅನ್ನತ.
> >>>>
> >>>> Translation of SSS's translation:
> >>>>
> >>>> *(Translation of the Bhāṣyārtha)*
> >>>>
> >>>> By *satya* (truth) is meant *vyavahāra-satya*—empirical or
> >>>> transactional truth; because the present context pertains to empirical
> >>>> dealings. This is not *pāramārthika-satya* (absolute truth); for the
> >>>> absolute truth, Brahman, is one alone. Here, in contrast to the unreal
> >>>> entities of empirical experience such as the mirage-“water,” those
> things
> >>>> like actual water—which are relatively true (*āpekṣika*)—are spoken of
> >>>> as *satya*. That which is opposed to this is *anṛta* (untruth).
> >>>>
> >>>> *(Question):* Then what is that which truly is?
> >>>> *(Answer):* *Sat*—the absolute truth.
> >>>>
> >>>> *(Question):* And what indeed is that (absolute truth)?
> >>>>
> >>>>    1.
> >>>>
> >>>>    Although inert objects such as stones are also effects of the
> >>>>    conscious Brahman, consciousness does not manifest distinctly in
> them. *(Sūtra
> >>>>    Bhāṣya 2.1.6)*
> >>>>    2.
> >>>>
> >>>>    Comparative truth: water quenches thirst, whereas the water of a
> >>>>    mirage does not. Therefore, water is *relative truth*, while
> >>>>    mirage-water is *unreal*.
> >>>>
> >>>> The point to be noted is:
> >>>>
> >>>> *SSS is not refuting Shankara and the Taittiriya Upanishad stating
> >>>> three types of reality:* The pāraarthika reality is Brahman, the
> >>>> vyavaharika reality is given the analogy of water and a third
> category, the
> >>>> 'unreal' which is also a part of the creation, is given the analogy of
> >>>> mirage water by Shankara.
> >>>>
> >>>> Thus, the Upanishad itself gives three types of reality.* If SSS was
> >>>> opposed to the three types of reality, he should have disagreed with
> the
> >>>> Upanishad and Shankara, *and by extension, with Sureshwara, who in the
> >>>> Taittirya Vartika has explicitly named two satyas: vyavaharika and
> >>>> paramarthika.
> >>>>
> >>>> More details can be seen in the linked article.
> >>>>
> >>>> warm regards
> >>>> subbu
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> --
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> >
> >>>> .
> >>>>
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> >
> >>> .
> >>>
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