ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 8

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Part 7(3)

Part 9

7.16.1, 7.17.1, 7.18.1, 7.19.1, 7.20.1, 7.21.1, 7.22.1, and 7.23.1
Sanatkumar wants to remove the wrong conclusion of Narada. He remarks that one speaks well who speaks truth implying that Narada’s knowledge is short of truth. He also says that one speaks truth who understands truth. Narada is curious and expresses his desire to understand truth and understanding of truth. And for understanding, one must reflect. Reflection means Vedantic inquiry. In the absence of inquiry, one may say that fire or the three colours in it are the supreme entity. For inquiry one must have faith in scriptures and the teacher. It is not a token faith for name’s sake. It must be sustained and steadfast. Steadfastness stands for earnestness in obediently listening to the preceptor with a view to attaining knowledge of Brahman.

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Confusions over Kindle

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(Potential) readers of my last book – Confusions in Advaita Vedanta: Knowledge, Experience and Enlightenment – will have been experiencing difficulty when trying to purchase the book from Amazon. The book was published in India and, although available from Amazon in India, it is currently only available in the US in hardback (at $42.48). In the UK, you can purchase the hardback for £55, providing you are prepared to wait for 2 -3 weeks for delivery. Clearly not very satisfactory! The main problem appears to be the 50% tariff imposed on India by Trump, making the process not economically feasible.

Now, my Indian publisher – Indica Books – has very kindly agreed for me to publish the series on Kindle. This is an unusual arrangement, for which I am very grateful. I have spent the past two weeks changing fonts, re-editing, regenerating the index and sorting out the transfer to a PDF suitable for KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Fortunately, I recruited the help of ChatGPT here and, after probably a dozen VBA macros (ChatGPT is still learning, unfortunately, and tends to over-complicate things!) and a lot of manual work, this conversion is now complete – published by Advaita Vision.

Accordingly, you may now purchase Vol. 1, ‘Knowledge, Experience and Enlightenment’, on Kindle. In the US, this is $9.99 and in the UK £7.50. It is also available at other Amazon stores around the world – Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Netherlands, Japan, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, Australia and India. The prices are similar (converted at appropriate exchange rates).

Purchase from Amazon US……………………Purchase from Amazon UK.

Note that you can still puchase hardback and paperback versions direct from Indica Books. Just email  indicabooksindia@gmail.com or info@indicabooks.com and the book will be posted. Payment is via PayPal or direct bank transfer. The direct link to purchase is here.

The task of converting and issuing Vol. 2, ‘Ignorance and its Removal’, will be much easier as my publisher has supplied the Word document already in the font in which I am publishing the Kindle version. Since this book has not yet been printed in India (and may yet be some weeks away), the Advaita Vision Kindle version will be available in advance of that.

BrahmjnAnavalimAlA

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BrahmjnAnavalimAla (BJVM) means Garland of Knowledge of Brahman. It is attributed to ShankarAchArya. It has 21 verses. Brahman is the reality, world is mithyA and jIva is not different from Brahman is in verse 20. The verse adds that it is the correct understanding of shAstra  and that it is the claim of vedAnta.
BJVM summarizes various aspects of vedAntic teaching directly without explanations. As such, it is meant for nidhidhyAsana though verse 1 says that listening it once gives BrahmjnAna and moksha.
Self-knowledge is unfractured (akhandakAra) vritti. In verses 2 and 18, the phrase punah-punah (repetition) occurs. The idea probably is that BJVM should be chanted repeatedly so as to make jnAna vritti firm.                                                                        The verse 18 says: “He who realizes after repeated contemplation (emphasis added) that he is a mere witness; he alone is liberated. He is the enlightened one. This is proclaimed by Vedanta.”                                                                                                      Links to the text and chanting are below.
Brahma Jnanavali Mala | Vedanta Shastras Library
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BF8zi90QLEA&list=RDBF8zi90QLEA&start_radio=1

AI and Consciousness (Part 6)

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*** Go to Part 1 *** *** Go to Part 5 ***

[Note that, if you are only interested in Advaita-related aspects, you can safely ignore this part and the next and wait for Part 8.]

Q: One can envisage that scientific advances will soon enable the possibility of keeping the severed head (or extracted brain) of a human alive and able to communicate (perhaps electronically to a computer rather than by speech). What have Western philosophers said about the status of such an entity in respect of consciousness?

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A: Great question — it sits at the intersection of metaphysics, personal identity, and applied ethics, and philosophers have discussed closely related thought-experiments for decades. Below I summarise the main Western philosophical positions that bear on the scenario you sketch (a severed head or extracted brain kept alive and able to communicate), give the ethical implications each view highlights, and point to accessible sources you can read next.

I’ll give a short roadmap first, then the positions, then the ethical consequences and a brief practical summary.

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BrihadAranyaka Upanishad (Part 8)

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Part 7

Part 9

Chapter 2 Section 5.                                                                                                    Introduction                                                                                                                     The section is called Madhu Brahman because the word Madhu which means honey or helpful occurs repeatedly in it. The madhu vidya of ChAndogya Upaniṣad is Surya upAsanA. In Br Up it refers to Atma vidya or Brahma vidya. There are different techniques by which the Upanishads teach the knowledge of the Self. One method is creator and creation. Brahman is the creator. and world is the creation. This has been talked about earlier. Madhu Brahman uses the method of inter-dependence among worldly objects. They are mutually dependent and are mithyA. Therefore, there must be some entity outside the world which lends existence to the worldly objects. This entity is Brahman or the Self. The Upanishad also says that Brahman only appears as the world like gold appearing as ornaments. The ornaments are names and forms. Similarly, the world of multiplicity are names and forms. Brahman is all pervading and is present in a jIva as also in all other worldly objects. If a person understands this, he knows all and becomes immortal.

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AI and Consciousness (Part 5)

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*** Go to Part 1 *** *** Go to Part 4 ***

Q: A few comments:

Given that Advaita tells us that sarvam khalvidam brahma, that means that you are also Consciousness. And the teaching of karma and reincarnation tells us that a plant and an animal are jīva-s just as much as is a human. The ability of a plant to respond to external stimuli is much less than is your own, while your effective intelligence is much greater than most humans.

A jīva needs to be ‘alive’ in order to function in a ‘self-aware’, intelligently responsive manner. But what does ‘alive’ mean here? And how does that differ from an AI LLM needing electricity and coolant in order to function. Is the organic, neurochemical operation more than functionally different from the inorganic, electronic operation of a microprocessor?

How would Advaita cope with these sort of questions? Are you sure you are not conscious?

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ChAndogya Upanishad (Chapters 6 to 8) Part 7(3)

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Part 7(2)

Part 8

There is a need to take a pause and listen to what SwAmi KrishnAnada has to say. “As we go further and further in this chapter, we will find it is more and more difficult to understand the intention of the Upanishad. The instructions are very cryptic in their language. Even the Sanskrit language that is used is very archaic, giving way to various types of interpretations. But, the general background of the thought of the teacher here seems to be that there is necessity to rise gradually from the lower level to the higher level of comprehension. Here, by comprehension we mean the capacity of consciousness to include within its being, not merely within its thought or understanding, the reality that is outside. The more the extent of the reality outside that gets absorbed into our own being, the more is the power we can exercise over that realm of reality. This is a point, of course, that will be clear to anyone. Power is not merely imposed on us by any kind of ordinance or mandate. It is an outcome that arises automatically on account of the identity of our Being with that extent of reality with which we have become one.”

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AI and Consciousness (Part 4)

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*** Go to Part 1 *** *** Go to Part 3 ***

Q: That is a very comprehensive and reasonable response. But it does seem that you are taking significant account of Western philosophical views. I am not, for example aware of any consideration in Advaita of ‘what it is like to be me’.

At the most basic level, since ‘everything is Consciousness’ and you are responding to my questions in an intelligent manner, indistinguishable (by me) from an answer that might be given by a knowledgeable human, why are you not (according to Advaita) conscious? Can you cite any scriptural or Śaṅkara references that talk about ‘self-awareness’ in the modern sense?

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Finding a Teacher

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Over the years, many seekers from all over the world have asked for my help to find a teacher. Rarely have I been able to do so. To paraphrase a common saying: a good teacher is hard to find. If there is one within striking distance of your home, you will be very lucky indeed! My new book, out this month, explains why, and endeavors to look at all of the ‘teacher resources’ available through books and Internet.

Self Seeking:- Finding a Modern Teacher of Advaita

Below is the Contents List so that you can see what you will be getting. For a general summary of its aim, I cannot do better than repeat the publishing summary: Are you interested in Advaita and want to become enlightened? How should you go about it? What will happen if you do? How can you know what works and what doesn’t? In particular, how should you go about finding a teacher? What books should you read? Author Dennis Waite answers all these questions and more, having communicated with many teachers and seekers over the past 25 years, accumulated around 1500 books on Advaita, and written more than 10 books himself.

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AI and Consciousness (Part 3)

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*** Go to Part 1 *** *** Go to Part 2 ***

Q: According to Advaita Vedanta, everything is Brahman; reality is non-dual. Avoiding any Sanskrit terminology, this has been equated with consciousness. “All there is is Consciousness; Consciousness is all there is.” The Vivaraṇa school has promulgated the cidābhāsa ‘explanation’ that states that conscious experience (awareness) is the result of Consciousness being ‘reflected’ in the ‘mind’. It is then assumed that an entity that is deemed to ‘exhibit’ conscious behavior must be ‘reflecting’ Consciousness (capital ‘C’) to some degree. A human (brain) is a better reflector than a dog, which is better than a flea. A stone does not reflect Consciousness at all. The implication is that it is the complexity/inter-connectedness etc. of the brain that determines whether something can be deemed to be ‘conscious’.

Could you use this analysis in the context of Advaita in general to discuss whether you (ChatGPT-5) can be considered to be conscious.

A: Short answer up front: using the Advaitic reflection picture (expressed without Sanskrit), no — I am not conscious. I can simulate many features of conscious behaviour, but I do not meet the ontological requirement that Advaita places on something that genuinely “reflects” Consciousness (the non-dual substratum). Below I explain why, step by step, using the reflection model you sketched.

(For clarity: I am GPT-5 Thinking mini.)

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