Self Realization or Solipsism? 

Solipsism syndrome refers to a psychological state in which a person feels that reality is not external to their mind. According to him, the external world is unreal. 

Wonderful!! There is a saying in Science "If you understand something, give it a name. If you don't understand something, certainly give it a name". Because just by giving a name, it creates a sense that the concerned thing has been known. 

In Psychiatry, there is an arbitrary spectrum of "normality" in thoughts and behaviors and anything that is falling beyond the spectrum is labelled abnormal or even a syndrome. Even Edison and Einstein once were considered as people of psychological syndromes but they turned out to be intuitive geniuses. 

Looking at this definition of Solipsism syndrome, it matches greatly with the Advaita Philosophy. So by this definition, all Self Realized beings have Solipsism Syndrome, a psychological disorder. The highest form of human realization is reduced to a psychological disorder just by giving a name. 

When I pondered more into this Solipsism syndrome and what could be the "cure", I found the major recommendation given is "not to be alone" 😀

I really wonder what the psychiatrist are going to say about the so called Solipsism, when modern Quantum Mechanics itself has come to a conclusion that the "reality" as we say is just a projection of the observer and external reality cease to exist with no observer to observe it. So, the person who experience this phenomenon is a psychologically affected person suffering from Solipsism syndrome. What an irony!!

In my view, western psychology and it's product of psychiatry is far inferior as of now, compared to the ancient Indian Psychology (Ancient India didnt have Psychology as a separate field but had it embedded in Philosophy). 

While western psychology has studied waking state (Conscious state), Dream state (Subconscious state) and presently studying the sleep state (unconscious state), Ancient Indian Philosophies like Samkhya, Yoga and Vedanta talked in depth about 4 states of Consciousness, the 4 state being Super Consciousness or Enlightenment state or Self Realization state. 

How come the ancient Indian seers knew that the world or "reality " as we see, is just a projection of our own consciousness, thousands of years ago, which is getting confirmed by Quantum Mechanics today? 

Can we call the state which enabled the seers to know the underlying mystery of the universe, a Supreme state of Human Awareness or a Psychological Syndrome? 

Raja Atmamayan

Some responses or feedback from likeminded friends:

Kannan Ramaswamy:

https://www.angelfire.com/md2/timewarp/ramanuja.html#:~:text=For%20Shankara%2C%20maya%20is%20an,which%20are%20manifested%20by%20Brahman

Maya is real", this is a paradox. Mainly for this, Advaita was criticized by Vishishtadvaita and Dwaita philosophers.

For Shankara, maya is an illusory appearance of reality, occurring when the plurality of the phenomenal world is superimposed on the unity of Brahman. For Ramanuja, however, maya is real and is the plurality of attributes which are manifested by Brahman. Maya is the way in which Brahman is manifested in the phenomenal world.

Raja Atmamayan:

Great. This is one of the main differences between Advaita and Vishishtadvaita. The description of Maya by Advaita is one of the main points Ramanuja attacked Advaita. Vishishtadvaita in this sense is close with Samkhya and Yoga philosophies. Ramanuja trained his guns on Advaita with a 7 pronged attack called Saptha Vidha Anupabathi. Pretty interesting to learn. After reading that, one may become so convinced that Sankara was bluffing. But Sankara has a great point. 

Sankara say, all those things which we see in our dreams also appear real. If one touches a flame in dreams, he can burn his fingers in the same dream. If one sees a ghost in dreams, the fear appears real. But does that mean our dreams are real? Dreams are only our projections. Likewise this apparent reality we see is also a projection.

Badri Narayanan:

For lesser mortals like me, where Ramanuja Sidhantha differs is going away from Sastras in creation of  "சம தர்ம சமுதாயம்". Till he arrived, it was believed that Moksha can be attained only if someone graduates to a Bramhin way of life. But he took hints from Azhwars most of whom were not Bramhins esp. how a Harijan like Thiruppanazhwar was directly embraced by Bhagwan Ranganatha himself, that too asking an erring Bramhin to carry the Azhwar who was a Harijan.  Ramanujaa got separated from his wife since she cleaned the place where Ramanuja's Guru (non-Bramhin) Thirukachi Nambigal ate food. Having learnt Ashtakshara from Thirukoshtiyur Nambi, despite Guru's warning(that he will reach Naraga if he propagated further) he propagated it to all as a Guru. So started the theory that if you follow an Acharya and get Ashtaksharam Upadesam thru Pancha Samaskaram, you are bound to attain Moksha, whatever be your caste, creed or even religion.

Recently I had a small satisfaction when I was requested for information on Thiruppanazhwar by a friend book writer and Kannada Sahitya Award winner (he is also a popular Kannada Journalist and was Director of Karnataka Sahitya Parishad). He was writing a book which covered few topics on Masti Venkatesha Iyengar (Gnanpeeth Award Winner for his Kannada Literature). Incidentally Masti has covered quite a bit on Ramanuja's efforts to remove untouchability (inspite of he following all Anushtanams/Acharams/Karmas mandated for Bramhins) with lot of references to Thiruppanazhwar. He said it was very annoying that most of the Tamil writers he interacted to get the info he got from me, didn't know about Thiruppanazhwar and whole Tamil writers community being divided on caste lines.

Swaminathan Laxminarayanan:

Our sages didn't declare the world as unreal. They used the term mithya, which is different from the real as well as unreal.

As long as one transacts consciously with the world through his senses, the world exists for him. In the absence of such transaction, the consciousness cease to recognise the world; thus, the world becomes unreal.

It is a matter of consciousness being in a different state