[Advaita-l] Logic and shastra

[sunil bhattacharjya]

Namaskar,

A short and crisp reply to your request is not an easy
job but I shall be happy if I am successful in
conveying the meaning of advaita to a twentyfirst
century reader.

One way of looking at advaita is that in the beginning
there was nothing (but Brahman) and at the end there
will be nothing (but Brahman) then one can consider
that the intermediate existence is transient and as
good as non-existence. So Brahman alone exists
eternally. Nishadiya sutra states that there was
neither existence nor non-existence in the beginning,
which means that we cannot really know about the
ultimate state. Science also finds that it has been
able to calculate only upto about a trillionth of a
second of the onset of the big bang. At the end of the
creation also (through the action of black holes,if I
understand Stephen Hawking) the state of being could
be like the pre-big bang state. Even Buddha said that
achieving Shunyata is Nirvana but Shunyata is not
non-existence. It is a state of awakening ( or being
aware ),where there is no separateness. This is akin
to Advaita. Was not Adi Sankaracharya called
praschanna Buddha (concealed Buddha)? Lord Buddha did
not believe in personal God. When a disciple asked him
whether there is God he kept mum and when the same
disciple asked if there is no God then also he kept
mum. He believed in a formless existence of awareness,
akin to Brahman, though not explicitly stated. It was
not exactly like Atma meeting( or merging in )
Paramatma but finding that Atma is no different from
Paramatma. Buddha cannot come back as Buddha. He will
have to be a Bodhisattva, should he decide to come
back, like an avatara of Hinduism. It is interesting
to note that one name of Lord Vishhnu, in
Vishnusahasranama, is 'Shunya', in keeping with the
above meaning.

Om Namo Bhagavate Vasudevaya

S.K.Bhattacharjya


--- Sridhar Babu <sridhar at amritapuri.amrita.edu>
wrote:

>                    || Bhava Sanakara Desika me
> Saranam ||
> 
> Dear Avaitins
> 
> I really love the contents but I want simple and
> concise materials that
> would suffice the whole of the teaching.
> 
> -- 
> Sripada Renu
> Sridhar Babu
> Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavanthu
> 
> O! Mother                                 ****
> Let my every word be a prayer to Thee,
> Every movement of my hands a ritual gesture to Thee,
> Every step I take a circumambulation of Thy image,
> Every morsel I eat a rite of sacrifice to Thee,
> Every time I lay down a prostration at Thy feet;
> Every act of personal pleasure and all else that I
> do,
> Let it all be a form of worshiping Thee."
> 
> >From Verse 27 of Shri Aadi Shankara's
> Saundaryalahari
>                                    *********
> 
> 
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