[Advaita-l] FW: Avidya, Jnanis and SSS' views

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> Dear Dr. Vidyasankarji,
> As both Patanjali and Upanishad  define Yoga as Chittavritti nirodha and we also know that Yoga is Samadhi and it is not really different from the first stage of it, which is Dhyana,  can we really say that Patanjali's Dhyana is different from Vedanta's Dhyana?
> Regards,
> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
> 


To me, when it comes to such sAdhana oriented topics such as dhyAna,
dhAraNa and the like, the much talked about demarcation between pAtanjala
yoga and vedAnta is basically a distinction without a difference. Sankara
bhagavatpAda makes it very clear that there is enough room for agreement
between Sruti and what is taught in the sAMkhya-yoga smRti texts and that
he accepts the latter in accordance with Sruti and rejects what directly
contradicts the teaching of Sruti. That is the principle that he applies very
consistently across all the bhAshya-s, and explicitly says so in many places.


In one reference in the sUtrabhAshya, he goes so far as to say, "paramatam
apratishiddham anumataM bhavati", with respect to the yoga system and goes
on to quote yogasUtra 1.6 - pramANa viparyaya vikalpa nidrA smRtayaH as the
five vRtti-s of the mind (under the sUtra, pancavRttir manovad vyapadiSyate). 
In another reference in the gItAbhAshya, he says, "te hi kApilAH guNa-saMkhyAne
... ity avirodhaH" and goes on to talk of sAmkhya categories. I don't remember
the exact verse number, but this occurs in the chapter called kshetra-kshetrajna
yoga in the gItA (chapter 13).

Best regards,

Vidyasankar

 

ps. This being a list to discuss philosophy after all, the following URL may be
interesting-

http://www.unravelingtheword.info/LogicalDebate/FallacyOfTheDay/Fallacy18.htm
 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Hotmail has tools for the New Busy. Search, chat and e-mail from your inbox.
http://www.windowslive.com/campaign/thenewbusy?ocid=PID28326::T:WLMTAGL:ON:WL:en-US:WM_HMP:042010_1