Who sees? What to see?There is neither you nor anything else to see in 'Paramarthika'.
This is not something to be merely intellectually understood, but existentially understood as well through meditation. Otherwise it is bound to result in delusion.
One sees clearly in paramarthika, without mental projections, interpretations, beliefs out of one’s background of conditioning, coloring the perception.
From the viewpoint of the false self, one sees a human being as a Jew, a Muslim, an African, an Hispanic, a lesbian, a transgender, theist, atheist, a white, an untouchable and so on.
As Nisargadatta Maharaj stated,
“ As long as you have a (false) self to defend, you must be violent.”
From the viewpoint of the true Self, one sees human beings as human beings or manifestations of life, and treats them accordingly with love and compassion.
In 'Vyavaharika' we do what is required according to where others stand, otherwise there was no need for Mahabharata. Disregarding that is self-defeating in 'Vyavaharika' as Krishna advised Arjuna.
And as I mentioned, the vyavaharika ought to be conducted under the higher principles of Paramarthika. If not, it is bound to end in failure as shown in the case of Duryodhana who ended up losing the battle in spite of vastly outnumbering the Pandavas and Krishna’s forces.
No, there are scores of Westerners whom I love, many in this forum also (a few Muslims too). For me there is no Westerner or Easterner. It is about those who write about 'advaita' without understanding it. '
This is just a conditioned mental interpretation of the situation in itself , ‘I am right and you are wrong’, ‘My version of advaita is right and yours is wrong’, instead of dispassionately discussing the facts.
As per advaita, ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘my’ and ‘mine’ are the problem leading to conflict and are just mental labels or false identifications.
Vyavaharika' also is a truth. It cannot be disregarded (Pakistan and China on our borders). When some one writes about 'advaita', his feet should be firmly on ground and not up in the clouds. That is why Sankara ran when an elephant pursued him.
Vyavaharika are relative truths. It has to be regarded under the higher vision of paramarthika.
But if one is truly established in paramarthika and advaita, even the vyavaharika evolves to support one such.
Ramana Maharshi, in his youth spend many days in deep meditation in a cave in Arunachala without food or water, which would have killed anyone else.
There are ancient tales of monkeys fetching food for the Buddha in the forests.
When the merchants refused to give oil to Shirdi Sai Baba to light lamps for Diwali, he put water in the lamps instead of oil, and yet they burned still. The merchants who had gathered around the mosque wanted to use the opportunity to mock Sai in jest, fell on their knees before him after this incident.
When the kashi brahmins were invited along with the enlightened sage Guru Raidas to a king’s palace, they refused to dine with Guru Raidas stating that he was an untouchable.
While dining together, they found that Guru Raidas was sitting next to each and everyone of them. They begged Raidas’s forgiveness after this incident.
Around half a century back, lynchings of blacks were commonplace in the U.S. by violent mobs . The non-violent civil rights movement started by Martin Luther King Jr. was deemed as impractical by many, in the face of massive police brutality, mob violence and government apathy. But it effected a silent revolution in American society and half a century later, America had its first black president.
All this shows the invisible paramarthika in action while the visible vyavaharika or relative conditioned reality deems such actions as unrealistic and impractical due to its myopic vision .
And like the likes of Duryodhana and Hitler, the vyavaharika without the guiding principles of the Paramarthika, experiences short-term success, but ends up as a stark failure in the long run .
All this talk of 'Sara jahan hamara' and 'Hindi-Chini Bhai-Bhai' has its limitations.
These are subjects covered under political science , not advaita.
Even then, I would say it is conceptual filters that prevents the proper comprehension or diagnosis of the situation and taking appropriate action, resulting in disaster.
The hawk and the dove are conceptualizations, pairs of opposites, and nonconceptual awareness rises above both.
The pacifist, appeasing attitude of the allies allowed the hawkish Hitler to build up Nazi strength and make his initial gains in war over Europe, gaining strategic resources to effect further invasions.
Krishna responded to the demands of the situation appropriately as he was established in nonconceptual awareness without any conceptual filters to clog the vision. Hence he could perceive reality as it is and take proper action as demanded by the situation.
