advaita and anugraha

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 3 Dec 2001, vidya S Jayaraman wrote:

> Shankara speaks of anugraha in several places.
> Anugraha and gurutatva makes perfect sense from a
> siddhanta saiva or vishishtadvaita angle.Could someone
> explain anugraha and guru tatva from an advaita angle
> or give some pointers to resources.
>

On this subject let me quote Swami Hariharananda Aranya in his commentary
on the Yogasutras.  (Translated into English by P.N. Mukherji as "Yoga
philosophy of Patanjali.")  This is a commentary on 1.32 which says
ishwara prandhana (surrender to God) is one of the 5 niyamas.

"Placing one's own mind in the tranquil mind of God is placing self in God
and God in self.  By thinking that all unavoidable efforts are being done
by Him, as it were, one can give up all desires for fruits of action and
thus be able to completely surrender all actions to God.  Such a devotee
considers himself as established in God in all his actions and thus is
perfectly at peace and continues his physical existence in a detached
manner until his senses stop their functions.  By meditating on God as
Consciousness within self, a Yogin realises his individual self.  (See
1.29).  When a person does anything being forgetful of God, he does so in
an egoistic manner, but when he does not consider himself the agent, but
keeps God in mind as the Lord, and wishes that all his actions may lead to
Yoga, i.e. cessation of activities,then and then only he can be said to
have surrendered himself to God."

There are some differences between Samkhya/Yoga and Vedanta, in Vedanta
the goal is jnana towards which cessation of activities is only one step
albeit an important one.  Still the basic sentiment expressed in the above
quote is the same in Vedanta too.

> Also Many advaitins were also shrividya upasakas.
> AFAIK shrividya seems to have small differences from
> advaita.How are these reconciled?
>

Shrividya is a form of upasana, like karma and Bhakti it does not cause
jnana in of itself but removes the obstacles that prevent it.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>From ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG Fri Dec 14 22:57:34 2001
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From: vidya S Jayaraman <paanini at YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Re: Re :advaita and anugraha
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As far shrividya, and tantra are concerned though the
general explanation is that it is an upasana marga and
in the realm of metaphysics they are advaitins
I have a few other points:

For instance in his explanation in the
varivasyarahasya by Bhaskararaya  the tantrika talks
about parinamavada and criticises vivartavada.

So Is it just that the criticism is levelled against
the later day adavatins or are there additional
differences.

vidya


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