[Advaita-l] Re: Anandamaya and brahman

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

The two descriptions commonly used for brahman are -'satyam gnanam
anantham' and  'sat chit ananda'. Anandamaya is also brahman because
everything that is here is nothing but brahman.

praNAm Ganesh prabhuji
Hare Krishna

prabhuji thanks for your clarification.  I've small doubt here, you are
saying, Anandamaya, the fifth  kOsha is also brahman( I suppose, you are
telling this  in the light of sarvaM khalvidaM brahma).  If that is the
case, dont we have to accept previous four sheaths i.e. annamaya,
prANamaya, vijnAnamaya  are also brahman(s). If all are brahman, why
taiterya shruti all the way had to enumerate the  five *selves* which are
invented by avidyA, beginning with the body, different from this self made
up of food (annamaya) there is another self the prANamaya & so on & as you
know,  in each case it enjoins the meditation of the body etc. taken in its
samaShti.  And more importantly at the end it tells the innermost brahman
itself as the tail of Anandamaya & declares *he who thinks that brahman is
asat  he himself becomes non existent.  Prabhuji, dont you think by saying
this shruti passing all the selves superimposed by avidyA & emphasising
brahman (Ananda) alone as the one subtrate of all maNo kalpita-s??  shruti
says in that state  all the specific features have vanished altogether
including avidyA kalpita paNcha kOSa-s as well.

Further, shankara while commenting on yEtamAnandamayamAtmAnamupasankrAmati,
says  saNkramaNa is not attaining nor is it the act of any one of the
kOsha-s beginning with annamaya Atman.  So, the only alternative left for
us is to take saNkramaNa as the act of that *which is other than the five
kOSA-s*  and it is only knowledge that is meant by the term saNkramaNam.

Shankara here clearly says our true svarUpa is encompasses all five koSA-s
& it is jnAna svarUpa & Sri vidyA prabhuji said it is Ananda itself not
Anandamaya.  So, prabhuji kindly clarify,  how can we say Anandamaya is
also brahman when shankara making clear distinction between five kOSa-s &
brahma svarUpa ??

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar