THE VALUE OF THE WORLD AS THE MYSTERY OF GOD IN ADVAITA VEDANTA

Abstract

For many reasons, there is an urgent need to re-examine and evaluate the ways in which the Advaita Vedänta tradition of Hinduism has understood and presented the relationship between God and the world. In an attempt to affirm God as an absolute and limitless reality, some interpreters of this tradition deny the reality of the world. The existence and diversity of the world • is sometimes compared to a sense-illusion which we conjure and experience because of ignorance (avidyã). The most famous of these examples likens the world to a snake that is mistakenly perceived in place of a rope. The implication here is that when the rope is properly known, the illusion of the snake will vanish. Similarity, it is argued that when we come to know God, the world will cease to have any reality. A contemporary Hindu writer clearly formulates this interpretation.