Nara said in post no.68:
This analogy uses three distinct entities to make the point that there is only one and no other, i.e. advaitam. The three entities are (i) perceiver, (ii) snake, and (iii) rope. Further, for this analogy to make sense, the entities snake and rope must be endowed with sufficient attributes, and, the perceiver must be endowed with the attribute of knowledge about the distinguishing attributes of the other two objects, or else there could not be any adhayasa on the part of the perceiver. To mistake a rope for snake, one must have knowledge about both a rope and a snake.
It is indeed a supreme irony that an analogy with three entities, each with several attributes, is used to assert an advaitic Brahmman devoid of any attributes.
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In the rajju-sarpa--snake-rope, analogy, the perceiver is the knower, the rope is knowledge and the snake is the known. Yes, there are three entities in toto in the vyavahArika satyaM of the world. The message of Advaita is that in the unltimate state of Self-Realization all the three entities will get merged into the one Absolute Reality of Brahman. In that ultimate state, there would be no perceiver, no rope, no snake and no other perceived/imagined reality.
The perceiver is chetana--sentient. The rope is achetana--insentient. And the snake is kalpita-adhyAsa--imagined superimposition. Because the perceiver is chetana, the perception itself arises; and because the perceiver is under the avidyA of mAyA, the wrong perception arises. This wrong perception is due to impure reflection of the inherent Atman in an individual antaHkaraNa which is the jIva. The impurity is due to the pent-up vAsanas--impressions, of past lives.
The Atman as the Self which is Brahman, is for ever making an effort to shine through the impurities of antaHkaraNa. In the jAgrat--waking, state, the mind is in incessant action, so it stirs up the vAsanas and the light can only shine feebly. When the mind is stilled in meditation, the light will shine through enough to give the knowledge of the Reality, first as a glimpse and gradually as a sustained state.
The svapna--dreaming, state is worse than the jAgrat because here the minds starts creating its own world dramatizing the contents of the vAsanas, which is why there could be no meditation in the dream state, howevermuch one is able to make it lucid and control it. However, the grace of Ishvara can make one have the realization in a dream.
In the suShupti--deep sleep, state, the antaHkaraNa goes down and returns to its source which is the Atman, so there could be no realization.
The barrier of deep sleep is broken and its unity in darkness could be realized as the unity in the light of sat-chit-Ananda, upon intensive and persistent meditation which leads to the fourth state--turIya and gets the seeker into savikalpa and then nirvikalpa samAdhis. Once this goal is reached, the seeker will be able to see the perceiver, rope and snake for what/how/when they are, as appearances in their own domains of conditional realities.
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