[Advaita-l] Re: Notes on sha.nkaras usage of vishhNu, iishvara, etc.

[Raghavendra N Kalyan]

Namaste SrI Ravi-ji,

>I recently saw a quotation (while studying chamakam[1]), which said >that
>among the devata-s agni is the lowest and vishhNu is the highest [2]. 

The above mentioned also occurs in the very first verse of the Aitareya brAhmaNa.

>This
>was used in the context of agnAvishhNu in the starting of chamakam ->saying
>that the term agnAvishhNu  represents all devata-s starting from the >lowest
>to the highest.

>Should this be interpreted differently?


I cannot give a direct answer to the questoin, but here is my personal opinion - There are some statements in the Sruti which seem to extol viSNu, some which seem to extol Siva and some which seem to extol Sakti, vAyu, indra, sUrya, agni etc. Unless one has a predetermined view on the greatness of a particular deity, there is no way (again in my opinion) in which one can determine whether or not one is greater than the other. Note that we as advaitins follow the Sruti & our AchArya in believing that everything (not just one particular god or the other) is brahman. Where does the question of the "supremacy of a single deity alone" arise in these circumstances? 


Regards

Raghavendra

		
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