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made of the same stuff. Everybody is made of the same elements.
And for a man like Adi Shankara -- who says that everything outside is just a dream -- behaving in such a way exposes him, that all his philosophy is just talk. He is articulate enough to talk about things, but it is not his life.
And unless something is your life, your very life, it makes no difference.
Another instance is still more idiotic.
Shankara traveled all over India, challenging other philosophers. One can ask, "Why are you challenging your own projections?" In this dreamlike world, if somebody thinks he is a philosopher, what is the harm? There is nobody, just a phantom, the Holy Ghost. But he went around the country with this philosophy that the world is maya, illusion, hallucination, a mirage.
He reached to Mandla, a small city in central India. It is named after a great thinker, Mandan Mishra. He was very famous in those parts, and he was the last one to be defeated. Shankara wanted a victory over all the philosophers of this country.
Strange... his philosophy says everything is illusory -- and his victory over illusory phantoms is real?
He went there. Before entering the city there was a well, and women were drawing water from the well. He asked them, "Which way do I have to go to find Mandan Mishra's house?"
The women started giggling. They said, "We have heard much about you. You think everything is illusory; to whom are you asking the question? What do you mean by Mandan Mishra's house?
"But if you want to meet another mirage, another illusion, a very learned illusion, you will not find any difficulty. You simply go into the town, and you will find Mandan Mishra's house without any difficulty, because just on the fence of his garden there are hanging many parrots, repeating, reciting the Vedas. They are all great pundits."
Shankara went, and he could not believe it: parrots were reciting Rigveda with such accuracy. He said, "My God! If parrots are doing this, I am getting into a lion's den." But he had to; the desire, the longing, which he was denying in his philosophy, was too heavy on him. He wanted to be victorious
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