Question:
Why does advaita vedanta feel like an incomplete philosophy? How am I the supreme self if the upanishads describe the supreme brahman as devoid of ego, above maya and free from avidya? Are we just a separated spark of the supreme self?
Sri Prabhuji:
There are three types of knowledge – perceptual knowledge available to sense organs, conceptual knowledge available to mind and transcendental knowledge beyond sense organs and mind. We are sparks of Supreme Self is conceptual and perceptual knowledge which is very obvious to all of us. We are sparks of Supreme Self does not require scriptures or philosophy at all since it is very obvious to ordinary human mind. There is no need of any scripture/philosophy at all for perceptual and conceptual knowledge.
However we need scriptures/philosophy for transcendental knowledge of Advaita. An example can be given. Sun is going round the earth is perceptual and conceptual knowledge of all human beings. However scientific knowledge is required to understand sun is going round the earth. Similarly vedantic knowledge of Advaita helps us to transcendental Reality of Brahman.
From our perceptual and conceptual point of view transcendental knowledge appears incomplete because our sense organs are very limited and fool us. We see blue sky which is not true as per science.
Five blind men try to figure out an elephant and come to wrong understanding about elephant. Elephant here is analogy for Brahman and five blind men represent our limited sense organs and mind.