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Advaita Vedānta: Causation, Māyā, and Reality
Divine Activity as Play (Līlā): The creative activity of Īśvara (God) is viewed as līlā—a free, sportive activity—rather than a necessary act, which preserves the unqualified reality of Brahman.
Avoidance of Dualism: By placing Īśvara and the world under the category of māyā (appearance), Advaita avoids the theological dilemma of choosing between a limited God or an unrealized Absolute.
Causation as Appearance (Vivartavāda): No true causal relationship exists between Brahman (the cause) and the world (the effect); the world is merely an appearance of Brahman, not a separate substantial reality.
Incommensurability of Levels: Causal relations require things to be of the same "order of being"; since Brahman is timeless/formless and the world is time-bound/formed, they are qualitatively incommensurable.
Role of the Thinking Subject: Because logical relations cannot be established between disparate levels of being, the generation of these levels is traced back to the thinking subject through concepts like avidyā (ignorance) and adhyāsa (superimposition).
Vivartavāda as the Final Answer: This doctrine maintains the non-dual character of Brahman by showing how multiplicity appears in experience without actually explaining the world in worldly terms.
Tagline: The world is an appearance of the Absolute, arising not through cause, but through the creative play of consciousness.
Would you like me to create a table comparing the different "orders of being" mentioned in the text?
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