[Advaita-l] [advaitin] World is mind alone: Shankara (sharing an old post) in the Mundakopanishad bhashya

[V Subrahmanian]

Dear Michael ji,

I don't see Claude here making any significant point. The Mundaka Bhashya
is very emphatic: dvaita is a product of the mind. Also, even though the
mantra concerns the cosmic person, Shankara's invocation of waking and
sleep to explain the appearance and disappearance of dvaita—thereby
conveying that dvaita exists only when the mind is active and not when the
mind is inactive in sleep, is very important.  This is because the cosmic
person does not experience waking or sleep as we do. We are not familiar
with it.  On the other hand, Shankara is talking about the individual
jiva's experience. This is a common Advaita method: the waking-sleep anvaya
vyatireka logic is used to deny the reality of dvaita.

In the Mandukya, Shankara, following Gaudapada, denies reality to the
objects experienced in the waking state by drawing a similarity with
dreams. This is too well known.


Warm regards
subbu

On Sun, Jul 12, 2026 at 5:16 PM Michael Chandra Cohen <
michaelchandra108 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste Subbuji,
>>
>> I respectfully offer Claude Fable 5 reply to your well chosen vakya and
>> bhasya. I did not take the time to confirm Claude’s citations even as it
>> cautions below. Further, I have prompted Claude to respond to the various
>> citations I have collected from these forums and will also post that in
>> time.
>>
>> Pranams, Michael 🙏🙏🙏
>>
>> * Claude from first person to Subbuji: *
>>
>>
>>