Question:

Namaste Ektaji, is this a correct understanding?  

When you say: “It is, yet it is not” are you referring to
The Presence/ Knowledge/ Pure Consciousness – It is.
The absence of any entity/ identity – It is not.

In Adi Shankara’s Adhyaasa Bhaashya, he is saying
It is – The illusion exists
It is not – The illusion is not real.

Answer:

Advaita Theory by Adi Shankaracharya stops at Drishti Srishi Vaada. 

Shankara teaches Anirvachaniya Khyati. It says that the universe which is an appearance in Brahman is neither real nor unreal. Shankara does not go all the way to Ajaata Vaada. He says that the superimposition ‘I am the body’ and ‘This body is mine’, these 2 opposing ways of seeing the same body proves it, that it is neither real nor unreal. Similarly, he says the world is neither real nor unreal. 

That is where Advaita Vedanta founded by Adi Shankar acharya stops. 

Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana shows that the world does not exist at all in Deep Sleep. Therefore, the entire argument ‘The Universe is neither real nor unreal’ does not hold water for the one who recognizes Turiya collapsing into Turiyatita in his direct seeing. There is no Universe there, there is only Brahman. 

Brahman or Turiyatita is beyond description as it cannot be known by the mind to be able to describe it. Hence, the only way to describe Brahman is that which is beyond the ideas of real and unreal. It is incorrect to say that the Universe is neither real nor unreal because the Universe is NOT there at all after Turiya collapses into Turiyatita. 

That is what Gaudapada taught, ‘There is no creation – Ajaata’.

As Adi Shankaracharya was a world Guru, he had to stop at what the masses could grasp, so would say Gaudapada if asked why Shankara did not teach Ajaata. 

When there is a recognition that there is no world, there is a clear recognition that there is only Para Brahman [Nirgun] or Supreme Brahman and Apara Brahman [Saguna] or Lower Brahman. There is no world. 

Hence I say, ‘I Am [Apara Brahman], yet I Am not [Para Brahman]. It is [Apara Brahman], yet it is not [Para Brahman]. In short, I AM yet I AM NOT. IT IS yet IT IS NOT.

#Adishankaracharya #AdvaitaVedanta #Non-Duality #Swapna Nidra Gnyana Sadhana