According to Shankara, scriptural knowledge of the Vedas (vidya) concerning the nature of the Being vis a vis the conditioned state, can bring one to a state of liberation (moksha) that is, freedom from suffering. However, in this day and age hardly anyone can read and understand the Sanskrit scriptures and there are only a few teachers for the millions of individuals.
That being so, the only way that people can reach enlightenment in this age of ignorance is to sit down and relax, trust in your own karma and pursue the path of karma yoga, doing good deeds in this life through actions without attachment to the fruits of those actions. Or, one can accept the religious life serving the Lord (Ishvara). Or, one can adopt the attitude of the skeptic, doubting everything. Or become a nihilist, believing that nothing can be known; not an option. There is very little that we can actually know through our intellect or the senses. Most of our knowledge comes through hearing, seeing, or observing, and feeling and we accept these as a valid means of knowledge. Sense perception and verbal testimony we observe that the material world exhibits change and growth through change. Based on these observations we note a certain order in creation and we *infer* that there must be an intelligent agent. After all, it is a fact that something does not come out of nothing; only a creation based on intelligence would exhibit an orderly pattern of growth and dissolution repeated over time. According to Vasubandhu, the famous Vajrayana logician and the founder of the "Consciousness Only" (Yogacara) school in India, we can never "know" the transcendental state through the intellect (buddhi). This essentially agrees with Immanuel Kant who wrote a "Critique on Pure Reason" in the nineteenth century. For Vasubandhu, consciousness itself is the Ultimate Reality; but consciousness itself is not composed of things-in-themselves or discreet elements such as individual soul monads (jivas), or physical matter that is created once in time and then born about and replicated by an outside force or power. There is a reason things happen the way they do; events are caused based on the law of action-reaction. There are no chance events. But, there is a more fundamental question that we must ask ourselves before we can inquire about a valid means of knowledge and the nature of Reality. The question is: are we free or bound? If free, there is no need for scriptures or spiritual teachers. But, if we *are* bound, by what *means* are we to free ourselves? The emphasis in our life should be on the *means* to gain freedom and not the why of our bondage. In a famous simile, the Buddha noted that when an individual is impaled by an arrow, we don't usually inquire as to the nature of the object; the angle of the arrow's penetration; its speed upon entry; or from whence direction it came; or the name, family, and occupation of the shooter; or if the arrow was constructed of wood, bamboo, or reed: we just call a physician and have the offending object removed. According to Shakya the Muni, this life is marked by suffering, (samsara). Kapila and Patanjali agree with this. Based on this mark, the historical Buddha formulated an Eighttfold Path leading to liberation from the round of becoming. In ancient India this was called yoga, that is, immortality and freedom, and was developed as a way to free oneself from suffering, not by the grace of a creator God or through the machinations of a demiurge, but by the sheer efforts of the individual based on his or her own willpower. The idea that man can liberate himself through his own initiative (yoga) is the great contribution of the sages of Mother India.Yoga philosophy does not agree with the idea of fate or predestination, rather it is based on volition, action (karma), and the principle that if one person can achieve freedom, then so can another: a man is the measure of men. We do not *know* that there is a state of liberation, based on our own individual reason, logic, or on our intellect (buddhi). But, we can observe and conclude such by noticing the actions, or not, of others and by following their instructions. In the final analysis, only when *you yourself* have observed and acted, and found such to be true, will you ever truly know whether you as an individual transcends the various sheaths (koshas) or not. On Fri, Nov 15, 2013 at 1:51 PM, Richard J. Williams <[email protected]>wrote: > According to what I've read, to Adi Shankara, God, the Supreme Cosmic > Spirit or Brahman (pronounced as brahman; nominative singular Brahma, > pronounced as brahma, is the One, the whole and the only reality. The > transcendental or the Pa-rama-rthika level in which Brahman is the only > reality and nothing else. > > "Adi Shankara claims that the world is not absolutely false. It appears > false only when compared to Brahman." > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advaita_Vedanta >
