[Advaita-l] Sankhya & Yoga

[Bhadraiah Mallampalli]

Dear Shri Bhattacharjya,

 

Apart from Nirguna Brahman, even a causal state has to be asiddha because it can not be the result of 

any meditation, practice etc. Simply it can not be the effect of any thing you do. So you have to become 

the cause (or make sure to eliminate all effects by not creating any more effects or through akarma). 

 

The samkhya term prakRiti seems to be a kind of parallel to prajna. pra means beginning to or emerging. 

jna is knowledge, whereas kRt is related to work. So what is prajna for uttara mimimsakas may be prakRt 

for purva mimamsakas, this is just a speculation. 

 

s'v.U.IV.10 talks of prakRti as mAya and the great Lord mAyin. IV.11 continues to talk of the same deva 

and IV.12 equates mAyin to Rudra. So prakRiti might be Rudra's wife. 

 

Purusha is usually a bit lower than prajna/prakRti, because purusha has defined limbs and originates vedas; 

but somehow Samkhya made purusha/prakRiti as a pair. Where in Shrutis do you see purusha and prakRti as pair? 

We need this to know where to draw a line between samkhya and Samkhya. Why is this mAyin same as 

purusha in later Samkhya?

 

That still leaves items like pradhAna open for interpretation. s'v.U. I.10 says pradhAna is perishable and 

Hara is imperishable, and the one deva (Hara) rules the perishable and the individual self. This is somewhat 

interesting: Advaita equates individual self with Brahman (the universal self). Now s'v.U introduces a layer 

called Hara between Universal self and individual self, and this Hara rules the individual self and the pradhAna. 

Can pradhAna be interpreted as "the initial state"? as the sum total of all ignorance the individual self has 

and it should also represent the vidhi/fate/current state. When jiva realizes that pradhana is mAya (illusion) 

will jiva realize oneself as mAyin/Hara/Rudra or Brahman? 

 

S'v.U. takes wild swings in all directions. In IV.12-13 it talks of Rudra as the only one deva, and says 

'Let us offer oblations to him'. So Rudra is still a deva who expects offerings etc (depending on how you see it?).  

 

Regards

Bhadraiah

_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail® goes with you. 
http://windowslive.com/Tutorial/Hotmail/Mobile?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_HM_Tutorial_Mobile1_052009