/lit/ - Literature

>>20312434
I'd start with lectures if I were you. Try "Arsha Bodha Center" on YouTube. They have very good videos that clearly describe Advaitan concepts.

>>14702820
>>14697822
>VI. Consciousness and Existence cannot be One
>Ramanuja’s brief argument is that consciousness and existence cannot be the same because existence is always an object of consciousness. Since that by which we grasp an object (consciousness) is different from the object we grasp, consciousness and existence cannot be one.
Shankara actually says in his Brahma Sutra Bhasya that the Brahman-Atma (which is the inner pure consciousness) as He really is in actuality is different from existence and non-existence as we normally understand those terms to be (which is a whole other conversation) but regardless; Ramanuja doesn't sufficently demonstrate or explain why the existence of the conciousness is nessecarily separate from the existence of the object perceived. Ramanuja himself maintains that the world and its objects are modifications of Brahman and that the Jivas (souls) are parts within the whole of Brahman, would that not mean that everything from the soul to the objects that it witnesses are contained within Brahman's existence and are non-different from that existence by virtue of them being parts and modifications of it? And this is not even to get into all the arguments one could make if one cites the Upanishad verses about multiplicty/universe appearing because of maya, which imply that the existence of those things isn't actually completely real, and which as a consequence points to the witnessing inner consciousness alone as being the truly Real or the truly Existent, this last point being confirmed by verses like Svetasvatara Up. 6.15: "the Supreme Self alone exists"

>>14396269
he must have been extremely virtuous in his past life to have been blessed with such a discerning intellect