[Advaita-l] brahman

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams Sastriji:

I would like some clarification of Iswara viz a viz Maya. I looked up your
terms and concepts section on the definition of Iswara but cannot seem to
reconcile the two. In definition of Panchadasi, it is mentioned that:

"Iswara controls maayaa and is the antaryaamii or Inner Controller of all
beings."

How can Iswara control maya? Maya is a manifestation of Brahman. It is often
said the relation of Brahman to Maya is like that of fire to its heat. In
the order of creation as per Samkhya (which Sanakra is not opposed to in
particular), Iswara does not feature. In the order of creation as per
Avyakta -> Hiranyagarba -> Virat, Iswara does not feature. So, how does one
reconcile the presence of Iswara or Saguna Brahman with the description
of creation? I think Swami Lokeswarananda's (Ramakrishna Math) observation
is that Iswara *is* Maya is the only one that makes logical sense. It makes
it easier to explain the statement made by Sri Krishna in Ch4.7 of the
Gita viz. "yada yada hi dharmasya..."  because the assumption that Brahman
manifests itself would not make sense. Your comments would be most helpful.

Thanks again for your patience, Mahesh





On 7/23/06, S.N. Sastri <sn.sastri at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Mahesh wrote:-
> Thanks again for your reply. From your description of "sarvajnah" as
> applied
> to Brahman and Iswara, Krishna was Iswara and not Brahman - since he
> "displayed omniscience". Is that correct or am I missing something?
> ------
> brahman is nirguNa. It has no qualities and no activity. But when
> associated with mAyA it is saguna. saguna brahman is ISvara. All gods,
> vishNu, Siva, kr.shNa are saguna brahman i.e. Isvara.
>
> >From the standpoint of ultimate reality all are brahman-  not only gods,
> but
> all human beings and all living creatures. But from the empirical
> (vyAvahArika)
> standpoint they are all different.
>
> To know more about brahman, ISvara and jIva please visit my website
> http://www.geocities.com/snsastri and open the file 'Terms and Concepts in
> Advaita'.
>
> S.N.Sastri
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