TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0148 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

|| 2.02 | THE CRITIQUE OF DUALITY | CONT ||

The Upanishads deny the reality of the form of the world of plurality and duality .

According to them , except the non-dual Brahman , nothing is .

The Universe is explained by them as the imagination of the Absolute-Individual .

We can only understand that this absolute-imagination is merely figurative and it can have meaning only with reference to individuals in the world , and not in itself .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0149 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The infinite Bhuma alone hails supreme .

It is established on its own Greatness .

It is not dependent on anything else , for anything else is not .

There cannot be imagination in the Absolute .

Imagination may differ in degree or intensity , but even these degrees are but imagination .

Even the acceptance of such a difference is ultimately invalid .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0150 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The experience of external objects depends on the strong belief that they exist .

This belief may be individual or universal .

But the moment that belief is withdrawn , their reality is negatived .

Mere belief or ideation does not make a thing really existent .

All that glitters is not gold .

All that appears to exist need not really exist as such .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0151 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The Goal of human aspiration is the establishment of the self in the eternal Consciousness .

It is sometimes believed that we penetrate the " Real " " through " this world , and therefore the world is real .

But empirical experiences should not be taken as standards for judging the Real .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0152 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

The modification effected in a thought-process in knowing Reality is identical with what is experienced after the act , i.e. , the attainment of Reality .

Hence the means becomes identical with the end in the case of knowledge of Reality .

The experience of the Eternal is not independent of the effort exercised to attain it .

All actions to reach the Real require a self-transformation which is the same as what they aim at through that .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0153 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

Cause and effect are intrinsically non-different .

The exercise of the effort towards experiencing the Real , becomes itself the experience of the Real .

Without knowing the Real we cannot move towards the Real , and knowing it is being it .

Reaching the Real is not an action .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0154 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA

All actions modify the subject of the act .

Action is impossible without the differentiation of the subject by a non-being of the subject .

TROTA | CHAPTER 2 | SEL0155 | SWAMI KRISHNANANDA