[Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Namaste Shri Vidyasankar,
 
Thanks for following up on this. 
 
To summarize and highlight some points. This topic certainly needs more 
svAdhyAya 

at least from my side. So I will conclude my views on this topic with this post.
 
1. Gita 15.16, 15.7 and 15.18 seem to hold the key to unlock the teachings of 
Gita.

2. We have three entities: uttama puruSa, akSara puruSa, kSara puruSa in the
   following hierarchy:
          Level-1:      uttama puruSa
                              |
          Level-2:  Adi mAyA in Her vyakta-avyakta form
                              |
          Level-3a: akSara puruSa: the most evolved puruSa (limiting case) in 
the 

                    realm of Adi mAyA.
          Level-3b: kSara puruSa: all other jIva-s in the realm of mAyA

3. The real question is not about splitting 13.13 in a manner that makes sense
   (it is a mistake on my part not to clearly point this out earlier), but about
   reconciling Gita 8.3 with the above three shloka-s (15.16-18).
     Option A: akSara and hence param brahma of 8.3 at Level-1 described above, 
     Option B: akSara and hence param brahma of 8.3 at Level-2.
     - You have presented arguments to support option A while I have been 
advocating
     option B.

4. Now regarding the shloka 13.13, which I feel is a topic of secondary 
importance, 

   we again have two possible splits:
     Split A: anAdimat, param-brahma na sat tat na asat ucyate
     Split B: anAdi matparam brahma na sat tat na asat ucyate
     - You have argued in favour of Split A - amRtam promised in the first half
       of the shloka is possible only from knowing param brahma which by option 
A
       above is same as uttama puruSa.
     - In my view, if we opt for Option B above, both split A, and split B are 
       equally possible. However here again, the brahma or param-brahma is only
       at Level-2 (Adi mAyA). Note: amRtam promised in the first half of the 
sholka
       is equally attainable from knowledge of Adi mAyA.
       
   
Regards,
Shrinivas
 
--------------------------
Namaste Shrinivas,
 
I meant to respond to this mail quite a few days ago, but got distracted with 
other
things. To me it seems that the usage of akshara in gItA verse 15.16 is a 
special
case, as it is only there that akshara purusha is identified with kUTastha. 
Almost
all other usages of akshara in Sruti and smRti refer to parabrahman. As a matter 
of
textual interpretation, I would be wary of extending the special usage in one 
place
to all general cases elsewhere.
 
Coming back to anAdimatparam brahma, there is still what is called pada-sangati
to consider - the consistency and continuity of meaning within the verse. We 
have
to constantly keep the first line in mind before parsing anAdimatparam. In this 
verse,
brahman is to be known (jneyaM yat tat), knowing which confers immortality (yaj
jnAtva amRtam aSnute). As per my reading of the verse and the commentary, I
submit that this can only be consistent with parsing anAdimatparam as anAdimat +
param, rather than as anAdi + matparam. The reasons for this have already been
covered in previous posts on this thread. 
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar