Three orders of Reality
I was in wonder when I was listening to Swami Dayananda’s Atma Bodha lecture and attached is the summary:
In the Vedantic literature, there are 3 orders of Reality:
Absolute Reality
Objective Reality
Subjective Reality
Truth is absolutely Real; That which is true at all times and in all places; In Vedantic language, we term this as ‘Brahaman’. In simple English, it is called “I AM”.
All our imaginations and beliefs will fall under the subjective reality; like claiming oneself as “Indian”, “Caucasian”, “rich”, etc., Also, we superimpose one object onto the other, creating our own world of name/form. For example, during twilight hour, we see a rope and mistake it for a snake; Even though the object is a rope, we superimpose another on it, resulting in fight-or-flight response. The object is there because we see it, this is subjective reality.
The object is there, therefore we see it; This is objective reality; We use our sense organs and see/smell/hear/touch/taste things; Each sense organs report and therefore we see them as they are: like seeing a person, a tree, smelling the fragrance of a rose etc.,
Now, an important question arises: “When I imagine a snake on a rope”, it is true that it is a mere imagination. But who has created the snake and the rope? Isn’t snake and rope not there? Are these just our own imagination?
The law of conservation of Matter and Energy states that “Matter/Energy can neither be created, nor be destroyed”. If this is the case, who has created this snake and rope?
The scripture introduces a term called “Bhagavan”, the Lord. According to our Hindu scriptures Lord is one who has six qualities in absolute measure. They are:
Aiswaryam: Over-Lordship
Jnanam: Knowledge
Sri: Wealth
Veeryam: Strength
Yasas: Fame
Vairagyam: Dispassion
These six qualities are in absolute measure, meaning that there is no ignorance in the Lord. What we (living beings) see as objective reality is nothing but the projection of Lord’s mind. The Lord puts forth a world of name and forms, as though, using the inherent power of Maya.
Subjective reality is our own imagination, while the Objective reality is Lord’s imagination. Both of them are mere imaginations; In the world of psychology, the goal is to reduce the subjective reality and fantasy and center ourselves into objectivity; In the world of Vedanta, we discard both subjective and objective reality and abide in absolute reality “I AM”, that lends existence to both subjective and objective reality.
Remind oneself that subjective reality is born of our own stupidity while objective reality is born of Lord’s Leela (play).