prasthAnatrayI (was Re: saguNa and nirguNa are the same)

[Sankaran Jayanarayanan]

On Mon, 22 Nov 1999, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> I think Anand is the only person who understood what I was trying to
> say. Perhaps my next post will clear the haze up a bit. Sorry for
> being blunt, but this is the second occcassion when you seem to have
> made absolutely no effort to read my post, but more intent on dashing
> off a reply. The karma thread stands out in my mind right now.
>

I'm sorry for the misunderstanding. I was just going through the thread
again, and in a reply to me, you had written:

--------------
Karthik wrote:


<<The upadeshasAhasrii implicitly accepts saguNopaasana, as revealed
in
the
following verse (there are many like this throughout the work):
(2.17.88) (translated by Swami Jagadananda, Ramakrishna Math)
"I bow down to that All-knowing and All-powerful One who is of the
nature
of consciousness and besides whom there is nothing else viz., a
knower,
knowledge or object of knowledge." >>

I am sorry if you think the above verse has anything to do with
saguNopAsana. It's obvious from the verse that it has nothing to do
with saguNopAsana.
--------------

I was always of the opinion that verses like the one above were
were meant to show the reader how saguNopaasana was supposed to be
practised. So when you objected to this verse being quoted, it really
stumped me. I assumed you were nitpicking on the term "saguNa" and how the
verse could not refer to saguNa Brahman. I have read only very little of
Shankara's BSB and GItA B, but enough to know that ni.rguNa Brahman does
not possess shakti, only saguNa Brahman does.

I now realize you were objecting to the term "upaasana." I guess I should
have seen that at that time, but the only meaning of the word I know is
its loose translation as "prayer/worship," not the strict philosophical
definition(s). In any case, the verse looks pretty much like saguNopaasana
of the GYAna-mishra kind that Anand talked about.

> Rama
>

-Kartik

--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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