In order for the subject to remain the subject it cannot assume observable qualities, such as colour, taste, emotions, beliefs, size, location, etc. This would be tantamount to stating that 'my white skin' is observing 'my white skin'. For example, the self as subject cannot attribute a quality to itself such as, 'white skin' or 'green eyes' while at the same time observing its white skin or green eyes. The essence of his argument is that the subject can never become its own object and therefore can never have observable qualities. However, he also holds that this tendency is deeply flawed.
Regarding the more difficult matter of superimposition occurring between subject and object, Shankara affirms that it is natural for human beings to superimpose the qualities of the object on the subject. In fact, a good case can be made that most human conflict, including war and genocide, is rooted in misperceptions arising from superimposition. Other forms of superimposition can be more catastrophic, as when a vengeful man murders an innocent person. In our example, the man's misperception triggered the emotion of fear and stopped him in his tracks. The phenomenon of superimposition creates illusions which can trigger a whole chain of events. All of this happened within his own consciousness although he was convinced the snake was real and external to himself. The man had unconsciously superimposed on the rope his memory of a snake. He peers through the evening gloom at object of his fear and gives a sigh of relief when he realizes his mistake: the snake is merely a piece a rope. A man on a road sees a snake coiled up and ready to strike. Shankara defines superimposition as, 'the apparent presentation to consciousness, in the form of remembrance, of something previously observed in some other thing existing now.' He demonstrates this false superimposition with the example of a snake and a rope. In order to more easily grasp the notion of superimposition, Shankara gives an illustration using two objects, rather than the more difficult relation of subject and object. Our knowledge of things is ultimately rooted in experience, and ordinary experience always involves an object or event as well as a subject. It is this fundamental confusing of the respective natures of subject and object which produces our personal anguish and anxiety and, by extension our social tensions and conflicts.
The primal cause of human suffering is a false superimposition in the mind of an object on the subject. the attributes of the subject.' With these words, Adi Shankara (India, eighth century) pierced the gordian knot of human misery. An Indian sage once wrote: '.it is wrong to superimpose upon the subject.the attributes of the object and, conversely, to superimpose.
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