[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 2, Issue 1

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>It is not peculiar.   The 12th chapter begins with that question.
>UpAsanA of  avyaktA ( chit-prakrti) or You ( SriKrishna) which is better?.

avyakta in chapter 12 is not prakRti, except in AnandatIrtha's thought.

>aE-vam   sa-ta-ta-yu-ktA  yaE
>bha-ktA-stvAm  pa-ryu-pA-sa-taE |
>yaE  cA-pya-xa-ra-ma-vya-ktam
>taE-SHAm   kaE   yO-ga-vi-tta-mAH || 12.1
>Which is considered to be more perfect, those who are properly engaged in
>Your
>devotional service, or those who worship the impersonal Brahman, the
>unmanifested?

So, according to you, it is incorrect to take avyakta in this verse as 
referring to nirguNa brahman.

>
>But  SriKrishna has already rejected it by saying
>avyaktam vyaktimaapannam manyante maam abudhdhayaha || 7.24 ||
>Only the un-intelligent think that I have manifested from the Unmanifested
>impersonal Brahman.

Hold on, you just said that in chapter 12, avyakta is cit-prakRti. Why are 
you inconsistent? Suddenly, in 7.24 you want to take avyakta as 
"Unmanifested impersonal Brahman". Why don't you take avyakta in 7.24 also 
as prakRti?

Or conversely, why don't you take avyakta in 12.1 as "Unmanifested 
impersonal Brahman"?

>
>So,  what do you think  this avyaktaa  is?  if it is not chit-prakrti or
>Shree- tattva.

You tell me. You take it as two different things in two different places in 
the same text.

For me it is very clear. avyaktaM vyaktim ApannaM manyante mAm abuddhayaH - 
the meaning is straightforward. abuddhayaH mAM avyaktaM manyante vyaktim 
ApannaM.

abuddhayaH - those without intelligence
mAM - me
avyaktaM - the unmanifested
manyante - think
vyaktim Apannam - as having manifested.

"The unintelligent think of me, who am really unmanifested, as having taken 
a manifest form."

In 7.24, Krishna tells us that although he appears to have a form, he 
remains really Unmanifested - nirvikAra. In 12.1, arjuna asks about the 
different types of devotion, those who are attracted to devotion to the form 
he has apparently taken as compared to those who are devoted to him as the 
unmanifested one. Krishna says that the path of the latter is more difficult 
- the path of jnAna is indeed difficult. Try controlling the senses (an 
essential prerequisite for jnAna) even for a small period of time. But 
difficult does not mean impossible. jnAnI tv Atmaiva me matam, says Krishna 
(chapter 7). The jnAnI is the Lord's own self. Simply because there is 
ultimately no distinction between one jnAnI and another.

Vidyasankar

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