A friend wrote to me:
“Trying to understand Reality,
By renouncing the world,
Is like trying to understand the ocean,
By ignoring the waves.”
— NA
I replied:
True in a way…because where is the clay but in the pot, etc.
But, the problem is we take the pot (world) to be the reality and clay (Reality / Consciousness / Awareness / Brahman / God / Truth) to be non-existent.
Following Talks are from the book Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi, which iluustrate the above point and answer the claim you have made.
Talk 1.
A wandering monk (sannyasi) was trying to clear his doubt: “How to realise that all the world is God?”
Ramana Maharshi: If you make your outlook that of wisdom, you will find the world to be God. Without knowing the Supreme Spirit (Brahman), how will you find His all-pervasiveness?
Talk 33.
A visitor: “The Supreme Spirit (Brahman) is Real. The world (jagat) is illusion,” is the stock phrase of Sri Sankaracharya. Yet others say, “The world is reality”. Which is true?
Ramana Maharshi: Both statements are true. They refer to different stages of development and are spoken from different points of view. The aspirant (abhy asi) starts with the definition, that which is real exists always; then he eliminates the world as unreal because it is changing. It cannot be real; ‘not this, not this!’ The seeker ultimately reaches the Self and there finds unity as the prevailing note. Then, that which was originally rejected as being unreal is found to be a part of the unity. Being absorbed in the Reality, the world also is Real. There is only being in Self-Realisation, and nothing but being.
Again Reality is used in a different sense and is applied loosely by some thinkers to objects. They say that the reflected (adhyasika) Reality admits of degrees which are named:
(1) Vyavaharika satya (everyday life) – this chair is seen by me and is real.
(2) Pratibhasika satya (illusory) – Illusion of a serpent in a coiled rope. The appearance is real to the man who thinks so.
This phenomenon appears at a point of time and under certain circumstances.
(3) Paramartika satya (ultimate) – Reality is that which remains the same always and without change.
If Reality be used in the wider sense the world may be said to have the everyday life and illusory degrees (vyavaharika and pratibhasika satya). Some, however, deny even the reality of practical life – vyavaharika satya and consider it to be only projection of the mind. According to them it is only pratibhasika satya, i.e., an illusion.
Talk 315.
One of the attendants asked: Sri Bhagavan has said: ‘Reality and myth are both the same’. How is it so?
Ramana Maharshi: The tantriks and others of the kind condemn Sri Sankara’s philosophy as maya vada without understanding him aright. What does he say? He says: (1) Brahman is real; (2) the universe is a myth; (3) Brahman is the universe. He does not stop at the second statement but continues to supplement it with the third. What does it signify? The Universe is conceived to be apart from Brahman and that perception is wrong.
The antagonists point to his illustration of rajju sarpa (rope snake). This is unconditioned superimposition. After the truth of the rope is known, the illusion of snake is removed once for all.
But they should take the conditioned superimposition also into consideration, e.g., marumarichika or mrigatrishna (water of mirage). The mirage does not disappear even after knowing it to be a mirage. The vision is there but the man does not run to it for water.
Sri Sankara must be understood in the light of both the illustrations.
The world is a myth. Even after knowing it, it continues to appear. It must be known to be Brahman and not apart. If the world appears, yet to whom does it appear, he asks. What is your reply? You must say the Self. If not, will the world appear in the absence of the cognising Self? Therefore the Self is the reality.
That is his conclusion. The phenomena are real as the Self and are myths apart from the Self.
Now, what do the tantriks, etc., say? They say that the phenomena are real because they are part of the Reality in which they appear.
Are not these two statements the same? That is what I meant by reality and falsehood being one and the same.
The antagonists continue: With the conditioned as well as the unconditioned illusions considered, the phenomenon of water in mirage is purely illusory because that water cannot be used for any purpose. Whereas the phenomenon of the world is different, for it is purposeful. How then does the latter stand on a par with the former?
A phenomenon cannot be a reality simply because it serves a purpose or purposes. Take a dream for example. The dream creations are purposeful; they serve the dream-purpose. The dream water quenches dream thirst. The dream creation is however contradicted in the waking state. The waking creation is contradicted in the other two states. What is not continuous cannot be real. If real, the thing must ever be real – and not real for a short time and unreal at other times.
So it is with magical creations. They appear real and are yet illusory. Similarly the universe cannot be real of itself – that is to say, apart from the underlying Reality.
Know Thyself 