[Advaita-l] Discussion on the role of Yoga in Adwaita

[Bhaskar YR]

I would, however, like to point out that dhyAna is not a separate system
or darSana. Sankara bhagavatpAda himself has talked of dhyAna in many
places,
as evidenced in some of the quotes that I culled out from the bhAshya-s.

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Yes, as Sri Vidya prabhuji rightly mentioned,  Sankara bhagavatpAda did
speak a lot about dhyAna as well as samAdhi in all through his prasthAna
trayi bhAshya (especially in geeta & sUtra  bhAshya) from purely  vEdAntic
perspective without mixing it with pAtanjala yOga shAstra's dhyAna &
samAdhi ( last two steps of ashtAnga yOga)...yOga shAstra (which is dvaita
shAstra in essence)  advocates *purusha taNtra* dhyAna which is dependent
on will & wish of the doer...He may do it, he may stop it or he may opt for
some other ways to do it.  It is *mAnasa kriya* of the doer where he can
modify its end result..(dhyAnaM chintanaM yadyapi mAnasaM taThApi puruShENa
kartuM, akartuM anyaThA vA kartuM shkyaM purushatantratvAt says Sankara in
sUtra bhAshya)..So, this type of dhyAna may lead one to *mindless* state of
nirvikalpa or asamprajnAtha samAdhi (pAtanjala explains this as *svarUpa
shUnya* state)..whereas vEdAntic effortless natural dhyAna leads one to
realize sarvabhUtasThaM AtmAnaM sarvabhUtAnicha Atmani....sarvatra
samadarshanaH...This is not svarUpa shUnya state, it is *svarUpa sarvaM*
state...This is the subtle difference between pAtanjala's purusha taNtra
dhyAna and vEdAntic *vastu taNtra* dhyAna.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar