Dan: I have to laugh, you hit the nail on the head as usual, cutting through the dilemma of dualistic thinking. Thank you! I have such a soft spot for do-gooders which perhaps has to do with my personal history which included a romantic idea of enlightenment. Thinking there is something wrong with the world is equivalent with thinking there is something wrong with oneself.
Sundari: Yes, that is true. The world is an imperfect place and if you think you must fix it, then you see are part of the problem instead of the solution. Do-gooders are a funny lot! They mean well but unfortunately just do not understand Isvara or how the Field works. The world cannot be anything other than the way it is, a mixture of all three gunas giving everyone a chance to work out their karma. Which is not to say that one should not help where possible and appropriate, but it is one’s attitude and knowledge about the how and the why we do anything that matters. Science has undoubtedly helped the progress of mankind in many ways, no one argues that. But one could argue that it also caused many of the very real existential threats we have today, such as climate change. Upside downside.
Dan: So, is it that any seeming solution that would be found for a problem (in the contradicting world of objects), that only exists because of ignorance and therefore is not real, must be unreal as well? That’s the only logic. But Vedanta is also called a solution. Yet it’s not an aid for a problem it only reveals that there is no problem because neither “me” nor “the world” is real.
Sundari: There are no real solutions in mithya, only apparent ones. Because, as you say, it is not real. Zero sum. When things improve or go our way as the jiva, that is nice. But nothing lasts other than Self-knowledge. Because of the nature of the Field and the gunas, everything is always in a constant state of flux. There is nothing to hold onto or gain in mithya. Vedanta is the only solution.
Love, Sundari
