Bhagavad kr^pa (grace of God)

[Gummuluru Murthy]

I sent this message to the List this morning, but somehow it seems to have
reached only Shri Ram Chandran. I am posting this now on the advaita-list.

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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On Thu, 8 Jan 1998, Ram Chandran wrote:

> Gummuluru Murthy wrote:
>
> > ........  But, we falsely think we have individuality and in order to
> > explain our falsely proclaimed individuality, we invoke Saguna
> > Brahman. Although it may be controversial, let me state that without
> > invoking Saguna Brahman, we can feel our direct identity with
> > Nirguna Brahman.
>
> Is Brahman Nirguna or Saguna? This is an age-old question, which even
> the master-philosophers of the sages and seers have not solved.  The
> best one can do, is to take sides with one or another of them, according
> our Taste and Evolutionary level.  Sankara claims that Brahman by itself
> is Nirguna.  But when we try to understand Brahman with our physical and
> psychological limitations we identify Him as Saguna Brahman.  These
> limitations are called Upaadhis or the result of Avidya.  Looking at
> Brahman using a scientific framework is possible.  Science views
> Production and Creation differently.
>

Namaste.

I would like to express my understanding of the topic and I would be
grateful for any clarification.

Brahman is nirguna. God is saguna.

1.  Just like we, the humans, are saguna, God also is with the following
    differences. God has only good gunas, while we the humans are endowed
    with bad and good gunas.

2.  God is the controller of mAya while we the humans are the ones
    controlled by mAya.

3.  Nirguna Brahman is beyond God, but devoid of action. I mean by God,
    the saguna Brahman as per literature.

4.  Just like, we the humans are product of mAya, similarly also, God
    (the saguna Brahman) is also the product of mAya.

5.  Brahman of the upanishhads is not God, the saguna Brahman, but nirguna
    Brahman.

6.  God, the saguna Brahman is as real or as unreal as we the humans. The
    only reality is nirguna Brahman.

Is is futile to try to understand Brahman. Appreciation of That as the
basis is all what can be done in this embodied form. I think a philosophical
understanding (again, a better word is appreciation) of Brahman is much more
important than a scientific one. Science looks at cause and effect.
Brahman is beyond cause and effect.

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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... aham bhAvodayAbhAvo bodhasya paramAvadhih ...
                        Shri Shankara in Viveka ChuDAmaNi (verse 424)

The end of the rise of the sense of "I" of the ego is the culmination
of knowledge.
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