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From the Bhakti List Archives

Krishna Kalale • August 7, 1999 


Dear friends,

Adiyen knows that the last quiz was not answered by me.  That will be done 
shortly as appropriately as the limits of adiyen's knowledge permits.  I 
cannot wait to get this quiz out on the net - just for some philosophic 
entertainment!  This is not to state that adiyen knows.  If adiyen knows 
the real truth behind this question, it would not be that amusing for me to 
ask this quiz as I am today.  Adiyen realizes that there are very learned 
scholars on this net.  This is not to test anyone and this email  does not 
mean that I know the answer to this quiz.  Long time back, my cousin Murali 
Kadambi asked this question to me.  I gave him some answer that I felt will 
be just enough to make him confused enough not to probe further in to this 
( in other words I escaped from the predicament).  I am not sure that he 
was convinced.  However, my answer was somewhat like -  if some strange 
questions are asked by children, their parents give this universal classic 
answer " Just go to bed now, it is too late;You should be very sleepy, that 
is why you are asking  all these wierd questions".

Question:

Assume that a person X is chosen to get moksha.  In the state of moksha, 
that person will be absorbed in the knowledge of the divine blissful 
Brahman who is Ananda maya! and will not think of his past bondage at all. 
Even according to Visistadvaita, he will be spared from even the memories 
of such sorrowful / sapless experiences of bondage.  His experience will be 
filled with "Brahman" knowledge and he eternally revels in the ultimate 
bliss of that communion henceforth.  He will not think or even for a moment 
ponder about his past.  He will not remember his brothers, sisters, home, 
parents and all those experiences he experienced when he was in bondage. As 
far as this mukta soul is concerned, the past experiences ceased to exist 
from the moment, he got moksha.

What is wrong if one states that, since this experience of universe comes 
to an end at the time of moksha, it is ok to state that this universe 
experience was just like a dream, it is there during bondage and it 
vanishes when one attains moksha.  Since the universe experience vanishes 
at the time of moksha, one can state that, "this universe experience is 
unreal or illusory, due to the the rule that -" A thing can be technically 
termed as illusion, if it appears to exist currently and later on vanishes 
completely ( or sublates itself), never to be found again".

If this is so, there should not be much controversy or arguments between 
ADVAITA and VISISTADVAITA.  Finally these two schools are saying the same 
thing.  They may differ in the fashion in which the textbooks are written. 
 Any two authors with distinct genuine originalities, separated by a couple 
of hundreds of years of time,  who write about the same subject, say 
"Ramayana" differ from one another slightly; But they are essentially 
saying the same thing (Ramayana) in different styles or approaches.

QUIZ :  So,  is there a fallacy in the above logic?  or is it fine to state 
so?


*****Note it is adiyen's sincere feeling that this is not to offend anyone. 
So bhagavatas, ignore and forgive me if this not to your taste******

Adiyen Krishna Kalale