Is Advaita profoundly different from Western views? | Nonduality in Various Religions

Swami Sarvapriyananda speaks on the topic, “Is Advaita profoundly different from Western views?"
This short video is from the following Ask Swami Q&A session:
Swami Sarvapriyananda is the resident minister at the Vedanta Society of New York.
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ABOUT VEDANTA
Vedanta is one of the world’s most ancient religious philosophies and one of its broadest. Based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India, Vedanta affirms the oneness of existence, the divinity of the soul, and the harmony of religions. ABOUT US Vedanta Society of New York is affiliated with the Ramakrishna Order of India. In fact, this is the Order's first Center started by Swami Vivekananda, in 1894. It was a historic event, for the seed of the world-wide Ramakrishna Movement was sown here in New York over a century ago. Swami Sarvapriyananda is the present Resident Minister and Spiritual Leader of the Vedanta Society of New York.

[hoonhwang]

The way swamiji can clarify the point of question is startling, even scary, sometimes.
It's the great blessing having him in this troubled times.🙏

[noble-thoughts]

"(All) things are just constructions of the imagination…"
Ashtavakra Gita
I believe that brain is also imagined and in reality seeing and imagining is the same faculty of Consciousness (The Self).

[parimaldevnath-fb]

Just too wonderful to appreciate !! Thanks Swamiji!

[anagha.aniruddha]

॥जय श्रीरामकृष्ण||
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Namaskar Swami Sarvapriyanandaji Maharaj 🙏🏻

[soorajks]

Pranam Maharaj 🙏🙏🙏
Jai Shree Ramakrishna
Listening to Your lectures have been a great consolation.
Seeking Your blessings for the removal of obstacles in my Spiritual Path.

[TheDeepening]

Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

[tanukagupta]

শুভ জন্মাষ্টমী ❣️❣️❣️
প্রণাম মহারাজ ❣️🙏🙏🙏❣️

[GeorJiadvaita]

Advaita is the living heart of many religions
Qoran says " I am the One, who was not born and did not give birth" (sourate 112)
"I am that I am" (Torah, Exodus 3.14)
"The Father and I are one" "before Abraham was, I Am" (Gospels)

[boeingpameesha]

जय श्री गुरुदेव, आपका नालायक सेवक गुरुजी।
जय श्री स्वामी विवेकानन्द, जय श्री सच्चिदानन्द, जय श्री रामकृष्ण परमहंस नमोस्तुते।🙏🏼

[balagopalramakrishnan]

Swami Ji, it's a great way to explain seer and the seen. Thru this drik-drushya viveka I clearly separate atma and anatma. From this to understand Advaita I will have to go to kaarya-karana prakriya, take the path of adhyaropa-apavaada prakriya and clearly have the prathyabhijna by bhaga-thyaga-lakshna vrutti and claim my nondual status of - Advaita.
But in the example you demonstrated here how is nonduality proved 🤔. The whole process of cognising the vase and flowers is explained. But the seer, myself, and the seen, the vase and flowers are still there - in my mind and out there. If the flower and vase are physically removed then the same is not seen and cognised by me. Yes, I can remember it. Having had the experience once it gets stored in the memory. But how do we explain nonduality in this scenario. Moreover Advaita is explained in paramarthika satta. In vyavaharika and prathibhasika duality is experienced. It's prathyaksha pramanam, a jyeshta pramanam, very powerful pramanam.
Hope you would clear the confusion.

[MM-dhwr]

No one can see light. By itself. Only objects can be seen through reflection.

[mel]

My finite mind wonders, if I see an electric pole in front of the car I am driving, the car hits it, the pole collapses on the car and both the car and myself, sitting in it, are totally damaged... was (in reality) the pole NOT THERE?
Why am I injured, in pain or even barely alive.... if the pole I saw was only an object of my consciousness and not actually there?
How can an object not exist if all my senses(touch, sight, hearing, smell, taste) perceive it to be real? Like, the food I am eating, or the clothes I am wearing?

[sangyemaitreya]

Swamiji is what your saying the same as Tibetan's say 'it's merely imputed?'

[Farhad-ikzi]

??
In the flower example, there should be something there in the first place to reflect the light. otherwise, we dont have the experience of seeing a flower. So how can the flowers be only in consciousness?

[jagwantsinghbatth]

Is the vase of flowers there and therefore I am seeing them 𝙤𝙧 because I am seeing them therefore the vase of flowers is there?

[singularsink]

I m not sure what book he is referring to about Jews non-dual philosophy? Every religion has Advtiya? Really? Islam/Christianity states anywhere I m Allah/God?? Really? Have u heard any Muslim/Christian religious figure say it ever? Is Swami Sarvapriyananda bigger scholar on Islam/Xtians than their own? This is a great disservice to Sanatana Dharma because the Abrahamics are constantly at the business of appropriation of others cultures/philosophy. I m not sure if he realizes it, but our so called Gurus are a big problem on this topics. For folks who has no clue what I m talking about... just today Rajiv Molhota published his new book on this topic -- "Battle For Consciousness Theory" 🤷

[longedo]

Would it also be correct to state: "the Consciousness that sees (let's call it "Subject") and the perceived thing (let's call it "Object") are intrinsically linked, as 1) both ones "emerge" from and in the same Universe, and are ruled by the same laws of Nature, 2) Consciousness alone has (maybe) no way of knowing itself (let's call it "Self-Consciousness") deprived of external stimuli. Isn't therefore the perception itself of a "Subject" and an "Object" as separated just an "illusion", although still useful in and by itself (for example, to communicate concepts by defining attributes)? Hence, is this dualistic "illusion" anyway useful in the path of eventually realizing a non-dualistic spiritual mind? After all, as far as I get it, non-duality does not negate the "reality" of the world, it just reasseses the nature of "Knowing", or am I mistaken? However, isn't this logic in part making the "Truth" unknowable (at least in a logical way)? Or can spirituality offer a direct "way out"?

[cabrahamrv]

I know this is the e jnana path, but some of the thinks that swami says and I can’t follow I them by faith

[sombh]

Around 06:15 Would the flowers exist or not if nobody ever saw them? Do flowers deep in the Amazon forest exist or not? Did galaxies that were discovered only recently, exist prior to their discovery? Now you will perhaps say that all these facts only exist in your consciousness and hence nothing is outside of it, to which I will say the following: what about unknowable facts that are unknowable even in principle, such as those that lie outside the lightcone of the present day observer? You will say that you can imagine such things and hence they too exist in your consciousness. But what about things that you cannot even imagine at present but which will be unraveled in the future, like the aforementioned consequence of the theory of relativity? What do you say about those? You can't say they exist in your imagination for I will then say, please give me an example of such a thing, and you won't be able to do so.
But as I have already said before, both the universe and the observer are vectors in Hilbert space and it is only in this sense can they be thought of as being equivalent to each other, or if you will, projections of each other.

[achyuthcn]

Only religions based on Vedic knowledge are true. Shaivism, Vaishnavism etc are true and Abrahamic faiths are not.