Abstract

Another foundational idea of traditional Advaita is the _sadasadvilaksana_ or “what is different from the real and the unreal”, a peculiar ontological status attributed to the empirical world. Since the world is both experienced by us and also sublated later on by the experience of Ultimate Reality, (1) it has to be different from the unreal since unreal entities are never experienced by us and (2) it has also to be different from the real as it is sublated unlike reality which is never sublated. But such an entity, if existent, has to be other than non-dual reality and hence must contradict it. So, Advaita declares that this “other” never truly exists. In that case it will be no different from _asat_ or non-being. This “reduction” of _sadasadvilaksana_ into _asat_ is an awkward problem and its various dimensions are explored in this chapter.