The Rope and the Snake

One of the popular metaphors employed in the pedagogical and didactic exposition of Advaita Vedanta is that of the rope and the snake. When asked: How can this world, characterized by diversity, be accounted for if the ultimate reality as Brahman is claimed to be one and unique?, the answer given is: just as a rope can be mistaken for a snake, Brahman is mistaken for the universe. This book argues that this metaphor is a good start, but only a start in explaining the doctrines of Advaita Vedanta. In what is perhaps the first sustained and extended study of its kind, it explores the utility, versatility and occasionally even the inapplicability of the metaphor in the trad­itional as well as the modern study of Advaita.