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Kindly explain to me what do Advaitins mean by - "the world is an appearance/illusion"?

If a tiger chases a man, pounces on him and kills him, will that be an illusory appearance as well?

The Crimson Universe
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    It is like a dream. In your dream, a tiger can chase you and kill you. But when you wake up, the tiger and its victim both are gone! This is what they mean by appearance. It is transient existence. The truth or ultimate reality is something that never ceases to exist. Our waking world is also transient (though longer than the dream world in duration), but nonetheless ceases to exist at some point. So it is appearance, not reality. – Amritendu Mukhopadhyay Nov 24 '21 at 09:20

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It would be useful to read the analogy given below to understand what is meant by 'the world is an appearance'.

Analogy

Think of a daytime cloudless sky. There seems to be a blue dome above us. That is our experience although in reality there is always only dark space full of stars. The blue dome is created by scattering of blue light by air molecules. The blue dome disappears after night fall, i.e., it is only a phenomenal experience created by Sakti.

The blue dome is an appearance superimposed on the black sky studded with stars. Replace the blue dome by the universe and the black sky by Brahman. Then you get the Advaita Vedanta teaching that the universe is only an appearance superimposed on Brahman. Advaita Vedanta tries to use the snake in the rope analogy to explain this idea.

The world, so long as it appears, is in God, the only Reality, just as the snake conjured out of the rope is nowhere else except in the rope. But God is not really touched by the imperfections of the world just as the rope is not affected by any illusory characters of the snake, or even as the actor is not affected by the loss and gain of kingdom on the stage.

An Introduction to Indian philosophy by Satischandra Chatterjee and Dhirendramohan Datta, Chapter 10, The Vedanta Philosophy

Is the tiger chasing a man and killing him also an illusory appearance?

The illusory appearance idea is a philosophical idea to explain the relationship between the universe and Brahman. This is the experience of an Advaita spiritual master. It would not be appropriate to use this philosophical idea in the mundane world. A person, who has not attained to the height of consciousness as the Advaita master, would see a real tiger really pouncing on him.

Pradip Gangopadhyay
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  • And if in this mundane world the tiger injures the advaita master, then will it also be an illusory appearance or dream for the advaita master? – The Crimson Universe Nov 24 '21 at 13:21
  • It is not possible to say what an Advaita master will do and think. Jnanadeva the celebrated Advaita Yogi got himself entombed alive at the age of 25 years to meditate in peace. His tomb is still there. Pavhari Baba who Vivekananda regarded as second only to Sri Ramakrishna set his room on fire and burnt himself to death. I can only talk of non-perfected people. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 24 '21 at 13:39
  • Also i read in some advaita article that when the non-dualists say that the world is unreal, they don't really mean that its completely false ... Instead what they mean by "jagat mithya" is that - Whatever we see around us, it is not the actual state/picture of Brahman. Brahman's actual/original state is avyakta minus the nama-rupa. Is this what they mean by appearance or illusion? (That this world of names and forms is a false illusory picture superimposed on formless Brahman?) – The Crimson Universe Nov 24 '21 at 13:45
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    Yes that is true. There is Brahman all around us but we see the universe and living beings. That is why I gave the example of the blue dome that we see in the day time. Actually there is always dark space with stars in it but we see the blue dome. The universe is an appearance only just as the blue dome is an appearance. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 24 '21 at 13:53
  • Thanks. And is it Nirakara Brahman who superimposes this false picture on ITSELF? – The Crimson Universe Nov 24 '21 at 14:01
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    Nirakar Brahman is inert. It is sakti of Brahman that superimposes. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 24 '21 at 14:16
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    I should've asked this yesterday but i got busy. Sorry about that. You said it is shakti of Brahman who superimposes. My question is, if Brahman remains actionless and if its shakti who does everything, then doesn't that make shakti an all-powerful 'separate' entity? – The Crimson Universe Nov 25 '21 at 05:21
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    Yes, your objection is the principal objection to Shankara's Advaita. Shankara has to pluck Sakti from thin air to explain the universe and this makes Sakti a second entity separate from Brahman and contradicts the dictum 'Brahman is one without a second'. The best way to solve this apparent contradiction is to adopt the Kashmiri Saivism views that Brahman and Sakti are inseparable and that even Nirakar Brahman has Sakti and that in the nirakar, nirguna state Sakti is inactive. The universe and superimposition appear when Sakti gets activated. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 26 '21 at 03:50
  • Ok. Need a little more explanation from you, as I'm trying to wrap my mind around this whole Brahman and maya relationship. Does the two (the unmanifested portion of Brahman and the manifested portion of Brahman) can they both exist simultaneously? In other words, when we experience this jagat of forms and attributes, isn't there also a portion/part of brahman, which at the same time remains completely devoid of forms and attributes? (Like, probably the part that remains in the background)?... Can these two different realities exist simultaneously? You can answer both KS's & Advaita's views :) – The Crimson Universe Nov 26 '21 at 05:43
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    This is what Sri Ramakrishna says: "Do you know what I mean? Think of Brahman, Existence-Knowledge-Bliss Absolute, as a shoreless ocean. Through the cooling influence as it were, of the bhakta's love, the water has frozen at places into blocks of ice. In other words, God now and then assumes various forms for His lovers and reveals Himself to them as a Person. But with the rising of the sun of knowledge, the blocks of ice melt. Then one doesn't feel any more that God is a Person, nor does one see God's forms." I would say that the nirakar and sakara Brahman exist simultaneously. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 26 '21 at 11:46
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    I would like to add that they cannot be experienced simultaneously. – Pradip Gangopadhyay Nov 26 '21 at 11:47