[Advaita-l] What is 'aprAkRta' ?

Rajaram Venkataramani rajaramvenk at gmail.com
Tue Jul 26 11:18:26 CDT 2011


On Tue, Jul 26, 2011 at 12:25 PM, V Subrahmanian
<v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:
Then, is the body of Brahman only spirit/Chit?  Now, we have the scripture
itself declaring that the spirit is 'avikArI'/'avikAryaH'.  If the Chit is
of such a nature, how is it that the shape/form of a ' body' is taken on by
Chit? How is this possible when the Chit is avikAri? Also, whenever we talk
of a form, it is paricchinna, finite.  How can the 'shareera', aprAkRta,
though, still be aparicchinna/sarvavyApaka?

RV: RV: If there is a real material body, then why does Sankara say dehavan
iva? Maya is the cause of time and space. Hence it is transcendental to
spacio-temporal limitation. A form that is maya rupam aprakrtam can be
transcendent to space and time though beyond the conception of our little
mind. Is it not?

Otherwise we will be imagining a multi-headed hydra or a centipede or
millipede-kind of creature of ViShNu.

RV: All hands and forms may be His but the Visvarupa is special because
Krishna gave Arjuna divine eyes to see them. It is not something deduced
through logic that it is a sum of all forms or imagined.

Here we get the hint that it is only 'controlled prakRti' that is called
'aprAkRtam'.  In other words, when prakRiti is handled in such a way that it
does not bind a person, it is aprAkRtam.  It is the shuddha
sattva/rajas/tamas guNas that are involved as against the malina sattva,
etc. that characterize the jiva's samsara/samsaritva.

RV: Even our body is controlled by Ishvara and does not control Him. So,
what is the difference between our prakrta rupam and His aprakrta rupam?
There is visuddha sattvam. What is visuddha rajas and tamas? I have never
heard of it but if there is veda pramana to say that I would like to know.



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