[Advaita-l] True or False

[Anand Hudli]

>*True. In support of this, I will state the upanishadic quotes "Gopalaham",
>"Sivo'ham" "So'ham" etc. One can argue that it is only a form of worship.
>The counter is "No because only an insane person would think I am someone
>else especially his own master". Anyway, "sa Vishnu eva bhavati", "kshetra
>kshetrajnor api jnanam", tad vishno paramam padam" etc. removes that purely
>on the basis of sastras. We see in Bhagavatham that Gopis take the form of
>Krishna when He is  there. When a jnani (gopis in this case) manifest
>sarUpya, then there is nothing to differentiate Her from Him. Madhusudana
>Saraswati states that there are three stages of devotion: "I am His", He is
>mine" and finally "I am He". *

It is important to realize that Jiva and Ishvara can only be the same once
they shed their upAdhis or attributes. Else, it is not possible to claim the
unity of the two. That is, Ishvara as Ishvara is not the same as Jiva as
Jiva, but Ishvara as the nirvisheSha nirguNa nirAkAra niravayava nirupAdhika
Brahman is the same as Jiva as nivisheSha nirguNa nirAkAra niravayava
nirupAdhika Brahman. The Ishvara, considered with all His divine glories,
cannot by any means be the same as the mere mortal Jiva. Ishvara is the King
while the Jiva is a mere soldier. There is an apparent contradiction in
equating the two, which goes away if you drop all the attributes, qualities,
glories of Ishvara and those of the Jiva. The Sun can never be the same as
the puny glow-worm, but both considered as a *shining-object* are the same.
The VivekachUDAmaNi brings this out beautifully:

एतावुपाधी परजीवयोस्तयोः सम्यङ्निरासे न परो न जीवः ।
राज्यं नरेन्द्रस्य भटस्य खेटकस्तयोरपोहे न भटो न राजा ॥ २४४॥
When these two limiting adjuncts (upAdhis) of Ishvara and the Jiva are
completely eliminated, there is no Ishvara, no Jiva. The limiting adjunct of
the King is his kingdom, while that of the soldier is his shield. When these
two (limiting adjuncts) are removed, there is neither King nor soldier.

In other words, the essence or substratum of Ishvara and Jiva is the same.

Anand