Ajati Vada

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Gaudapada firmly states that ajati-vada is rooted in the Upanishad-s, which clearly, repeatedly, and definitively declare that the ultimate reality is Brahman which is non dual, self known, self evident, and eternal; while difference, duality, plurality, and origination is nothing but mere appearance:

"There is no second to Atman" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, IV, 3, 23).

"Brahman is one without a second" (Chandogya Upanishad, VI, 2,2).

"This self is Brahman" (Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, II, 5, 19).

"How can delusion and suffering touch him who sees the non dual Self everywhere" (Isavashya Upanishad, 7).

"The knower of Brahman becomes Brahman" (Mundaka Upanishad, III, 2, 9).

"He goes from death to death who sees any difference here" (Katha Upanishad, II, 1,10)

"He goes from death to death who sees multiplicity in It. This, verily, is That" (Katha Upanishad, II, 1, 11).

"In utter darkness are those who worship the creation" (Isavashya Upanishad, 12).

These statements of the Upanishad-s agree in teaching the non-dual reality of Advaita by proclaiming and praising the non difference between jiva, Atman, and Brahman.

Not only by the authority of scriptures but also by independent reasoning, says Gaudapada, ajati-vada can be proved. Thus, in his exposition of Advaita he guides the seeker with many arguments, step by step, to the Supreme Truth – that nothing whatsoever is born or created.

No-creation (ajati) implies that causality is an illusion. But for whom is it an illusion? It is for him who has realized the truth of non-duality. From the standpoint of those who take the pluralistic universe to be real, the world and its changes, the soul and its states, cannot be easily and completely dismissed. Nevertheless, before one undertakes enquiry into the Truth, one should at least understand theoretically that the dualistic world, though it appears, cannot be real.

The seeker who has understood the Advaitic teaching will realize that the question of cause never arises. The consideration of maya and avidya is only a temporary compromise for the immature seeker to satisfy his longing for an explanation of the world. In every individual case the presence of avidya can be traced to the absence of enquiry into the Self or Truth. The doctrine of maya and avidya is offered only to help the aspirant to rise to the plane of absolute oneness.

It should be remembered that from the Absolute point of view (paramarthika-satya) Brahman neither creates nor destroys, He only is. Thus, according to Mandukya Karika, the Upanishads, and other ancient Advaitic texts, the final truth regarding Brahman and creation is that Brahman is Birthless (aja), in the sense that it is the ever existent, and that creation is "birthless" (aja) as well, but in the opposite sense, that it never really exists.

 

 
 

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