Maaya and Gyaana

The problem with the writers of Atman, of Gyaana is that they don't know what they are talking about. How could it be true? This is an issue of understanding.

That earth is moving around sun is also a belief, is also a sentence, and also a proposition. It is also claim of theory. This proposition is a knowledge-claim. Then, what is the difference between this knwoledge-claim and gyaaana: reading Adi Shakaraacharya and offering another 'interpretation' will not do; it simply shows how 'erudite' one is. We have zillions of erudites, but one is not in a position to answer rudimentary questions posed by ordinary people.

Every one thinks that concepts are variables the way X, Y, Z are introduced by convention or by definition in C routine, or in mathematics. This is also screwing the new age metaphysics Indian junk. Concepts are not variables: they don't arise in vacuum; they are part of some theory or some understanding. When such theory/understanding is lost, we are left with slogans: that Universe is of God; Atman is God. What a nonsense!

Abt maaya. The world is not mirage, my friend. The world exists and impinges upon our experience. WHy don't you jump from a high-rising tower in Hyderabad? And see the mirage when you end up on death-bed. Indian traditions claim that our experience is not veridical; from this, it doesn't follow that world is mirage or is an illusion. Adi Shankara did not say this, but the modern interpretors junk do. Then, what is maaya? All traditions claim that maaya is a positive force; and that world is maaya, but not illusion. To illustrate this, let me play with a toy example: if you got Tirumala, you see dEvAlaya, I do building, whereas a martian (with similar constitution) sees a heap of stones. This is what Shankara says: there is *no* unique way of experiencing the world; however, we can compare two ways of experiencing the world: that's why we can make qualitative claims: that your experiencing of X is more illusory that my experience of what you experience; and so on. In western tradition, the failure of empiricist/positivist camps says that there are no 'positive facts' Indian traditions make the strongest claim: we can only know that our abductive inference of the structure of the world is false, but we will never know the true structure(s) of the world.

What, then, is maaya: it is human learning strategy, a particular implementation of (human) evolutionary learning ability. Whenever we navigate in the world, we problematize only aspect of it, while keeping stable the remaining. This ability prevents us from accessing the truth of the experience. In maaya panchaka, Shankara claims that the learned, the lay man, the Brahman are spell-bound by her( that is, maaya). And also he says, maaya is an effect.