Mithy§ and anitya
A-nitya is (not nitya) impermanent. All of us know that this world is anitya or
impermanent. What is anitya? That which
has a beginning and an end is anitya. Things are produced and destroyed. All living beings are anitya. They come to
life, existe and die. Thus, all things and living beings are transitory.
Thus, all worldly things including living creatures
are impermanent. Not only they are
impermanent (anitya), they are also false (mithy§). What is the difference between anitya
and mithy§? A task, say for example, a session of cooking is anitya. Why
so? It has a beginning and an end. Prior to its beginning, it was not in
existence and after the completion, it will not be there. So, it is anitya.
However, things which are impermanent (anitya) are not
unreal. A toffy is produced. It is real.
It has a beginning. Once it is eaten, its existence comes to an end, even
though its existence is real, it is impermanent. In between its production and consumption, the
toffy has an existence which is real. This is mundane understanding of reality.
But in Ved§nta, reality means eternal reality (or nitya). This (nitya) is ‘tri-k§la-av§dhitatvam satyatvam’,
means, it is in existence in all three periods of time: past, present and
future. There is no question of its coming into existence, maintaining
existence and disappearance. Brahman,
the ultimate reality alone is nitya or permanent.
The G$t§-ii.16: ‘n§sato vidyate bh§vo, n§bh§vo
vidyate sata#’:
i. That which is temporary (anitya) is also false
(mithy§).
ii. That which
is eternal (nitya), does not vanish in the thin air. Brahman is nitya. It has no beginning and no end.
iii. An
impermanent thing or event can be real.
An apple has a beginning, existence and an end. Even though it is impermanent, its existence
is real.
iv. ‘Unreal
(asat) has no existence (bh§va) and real (sat) has no non-existence (abh§va)’.
v. What is
false? If a rope is mistaken for a
snake. This is false knowledge. Snake is false. The rope is impermanent (anitya) but real (true). Snake is not only impermanent (anitya) but
also unreal (mithy§). Water seen in sand
in a desert (mirage). Sand is impermanent but real. But water in the desert is
impermanent (anitya) and also unreal (mithy§). What is unreal and impermanent
(anitya)? That never was, is or will be in existence. For example, mirage.
But image of water (mirage) in a desert appears
to be in existence even though it was not there and will never be. Between its birth and death, the mirage
exists. Same is the case of a human being. We appear to exist at present even
though we were not there before birth and will not be there after death. This
is why life is impermanent (anitya) or transitory. Therefore, even though life is impermanent,
it is real.
The events and people we see in dream (svapna) don’t
exist in any of the three phases of time. They were not there, they are not now and will
not be. It is just as water seen in a
mirage. We don’t say that the person seen during dream was not there before and
after dream, but the person was there during dream. We never say that ‘the
conversation with the person during dream happened’. We say that it was just a dream. So also, the
mirage.
There is a difference between impermanent (anitya) and
false (mithy§). Impermanent (anitya) things
have a beginning and an end. They exist
in between beginning and end. Appearances, illusions, dreams etc. They have a beginning and end. They don’t exist before beginning and after
end. But they exist between beginning and end.
Dream is false (mithy§). So also, a mirage. Why?
Objects, events or people we see during dream were not, is not and will not be
there in existence. Even objects or
events seen or experienced during dream don’t exist at all. Or for that matter, water seen in a
mirage, even though seen, does not exist.
This is why a dream is a dream, (not a reality) and mirage is a mirage. They are unreal and also false.
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