Friday, May 15, 2020

Ajata-Vada

5. Q. What is the Ajata-vada? 

A. It is the doctrine of no birth. Nothing is or ever was born, nor does it decay or die. 

6. Q. Then what do we see happening before us? 

A. The seer and the seen are mere phantoms as in a dream vision. 

7. Q. But dream is bound up with sleep, while here we are awake. 

A. What is sleep except being unaware of your own being? Mental activity in such unawareness gives rise to confusing thoughts; thus comes the mistake of seeing what is not and missing what is. Similarly in the waking state; we miss the Self and see the world, which really is not. That which is not cannot be born or die; it seems to emerge from the Real Being, and also merge in It again. To become aware of this Real Being is the ultimate goal of the man who is ignorant of It but yearns to realise It. 

Ajata-vada fulfils this purpose, and it is based on the fundamentals laid down in the Upanishads and elaborated in the Karika of the Mandukyopanishad — which has been elaborately explained by Sri Sankaracharya.

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