Does Dvaita philosophy belong to ignorant people, as thought by Advaitins?

[dattaswami]

Does Dvaita philosophy belong to ignorant people, as thought by Advaitins?

[Shri Ajay asked: Recently, I heard a Sanskrit scholar speaking on the Advaita philosophy of Shankara. He says that the Dvaita philosophy (dualism) belongs to ignorant people and the Advaita philosophy belongs to monism. Please comment on these remarks.]

Swami Replied: The Advaita philosophers say that dualism is due to ignorance whereas, monism is the right concept of the soul that is God. I like to ask them that if dualism belongs to ignorant people, who was that first ignorant fellow, who invented this dualism? The Veda says that first, God wanted dualism for entertainment because God was not entertained in monism due to boredom (Ekākī na ramate, sa dvitīyamaicchat – Veda). Therefore, God is that first ignorant person, Who wished for dualism. Since monism is truth and belongs to God, how did such person living in monism developed fascination for dualism? God got entertainment and is happy in dualism whereas, He was unhappy in monism. According to your philosophy, God must be the first ignorant person.

You are praising monism in which God got bored. You are condemning dualism in which God is entertained and happy. Are you not against God? You say that the world is unreal. We agree to this point because world is inherently unreal and this world created by God is gifted with the absolute reality of God. Just like the shape of the pot is originally unreal in the lump of mud, this world is also unreal in the case of God (Brahman). But God cannot be entertained with the unreal world. Hence, God gifted His own absolute reality to the world and therefore, the world became absolute real like God. We can be entertained in this world, which is equally real with our reality. We can’t be entertained in our imaginary world, which is unreal inherently. Now, how can you say that the world is unreal because the world became as real as God Himself due to the wish of God alone? God is so happy with this world through dualism so that God never destroys this world and preserves it for the subsequent show again and again (dhātā yathā pūrvamakalpayat). In the dissolution intermission, God only takes this world from its gross state to subtle state so that He maintains the dualism continuously without the end at any time. This point of subtle state of the world after dissolution is also said by the same Advaita philosophers! If you are criticizing such dualism, you are criticizing God only. You must know that by criticizing dualism, you are criticizing the action of creation of God indirectly.

Shankara told that God is absolute reality and the world is relative reality. Relative reality means that the world is inherently unreal, but, becomes absolutely real as the absolute real God due to God-gifted absolute reality of God. He never told that the world is still unreal. Once upon a time, before creation, the world was originally unreal. But, after creation, the world became as real as God due to the will of God only so that the absolutely real world can give absolutely real entertainment to the absolutely real God. Such inherently unreal entity becoming absolute reality is called as mithyā, which is neither real nor unreal (sadasadvilakṣaṇā) by Shankara. This means that the world was not real originally and now that the world is as real as God. It is a matter of highest wonder because the Advaita philosophers themselves say that the world is unreal and became absolutely real due to the God-gifted absolute reality. Once upon a time, the world might have been unreal. But now, it is as absolutely real as the absolutely real God. A person might have been poor sometime back. Now, he has earned one crore and became the Lord of one crore (crorepati) and is paying the income tax like other crore-owners. This crore-owner can’t say that he was poor once upon a time and hence, tax should not be collected from him! The Advaita philosopher criticizing the state liked by God and appreciating the state in which God is bored, must make himself clear whether he is a theist or an atheist. I am asking one point in a very straight way. Even an uneducated fool in this world does not forget himself unless he is a mad person, who lost his mental balance completely. You say that the soul is God, who forgot himself! Does this mean that God is a mad fool forgetting Himself? How did such omniscient God forget His own basic identity!!