John wrote:
> As an extension of Chopra's analogy, we can say
> that if one has not reached cosmic consciousness,
> then the phenomenal world is an illusion or Maya
> due to the effects of the gunas.
>
The point I was trying to make, John, is that if
Purusha, the Transcendental Person, is part and
parcel of the relative world of prakriti and subject
to the three gunas, then, according to Shankara,
the highest God, Creator Brahm, is just an illusion
- a result of Maya, thus not real. If God is an
illusion and not real, then there is no Transcendental
Person in the absolute sense. You must admit that this
is a significant conundrum and probably the reason why
all the Upanishadic commentators ascribed to either
dualism, quasi-dulaism, or qualified dualsism -
Ramanuja, Madhva, Vallaba, Nimbarka, and Chaitanya,
instead of adwaita. While all these acharyas were
transcendentalists, they did not agree with Shankara
concerning the Absolute nature of the Purusha. In
fact, as pointed out by Vaj, the notion that Brahman
is an unmanifest and impersonal Absolute without
attributes is almost pure Middle Way Buddhism
(Madyamika). It is very difficult to relate on a
personal level to a non-person and at the same time
call that person God, who is obviously a Person,
by definition, according to the Upanishads.
