[Advaita-l] Adwaita and God.

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Srikantaji,

Ishvara in Yoga, as Vidyasankarji pointed out, is a Vishesha (special)  Purusha who does not come under the wiles of the Prakriti. As his vachaka is OM wecan very well understand that he is none other than the Purushottama.  Lord Krishna told us to submit to him alone and that is what the yogi does. Yogi does Pranidhana to Ishvara, that is Him. You can say that Yoga did not make it explicit that Ishvara is Brahman but  it did say that Ishvara is OM and left it at that. Don't we say in Hindi "Samazdaro ke liye ishaaraahi kafi hai". Further Yoga did not talk about Brahman as it was beyond its discipline. There is the Vedanta for further enquiry ( jijnasha).  Yoga can be said to be Dvaita as Yoga does not say  what is the status of the  liberated purushas and do they become one with Ishvara.

There is only one Brahman and you cannot create any competitor not even through the trifurcation of OM (AUM),  if I may say so, although I do not dispute the logic of trifurcating OM (AUM) for teaching purpose.

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Fri, 11/5/10, srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in> wrote:

From: srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Adwaita and God.
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Friday, November 5, 2010, 6:32 AM




I hesitate to get into this conversation, but would just like to point out
that in the
yoga system, ISvara is nowhere described as the creator of the universe.
As per
the yogasUtra (and if I remember right, the yogabhAshya too), ISvara is
only a
special kind of purusha (purusha-viSesha), who is always free of prakRti
and is
never tainted by the impurities of identification with prakRti, that is all.

The classical yoga school is aligned with sAMkhya, where creation is due
to the
contact of purusha(s) and prakRti. Neither purusha alone nor prakRti alone
can
create, as per both sAMkhya and yoga. Creation needs purusha-prakRti saMyoga,
whereas in yoga, ISvara is always in viyoga with respect to prakRti.

Nevertheless, in yoga, tasya vAcakaH praNavaH - OM is the symbol of ISvara.

Regards,
Vidyasankar


Let me elaborate on that point.All Dwaita schools,and Yoga school is no
exception start with the premise that there is a creator.Whether we call
it Purusha,or Ishwara with Purusha associated with prakrthi,they all end
up with Dwaita drsti.Only the Adwaita or vedanta discriminates Ishwara
from Brahman or Turiya.
The Mandukya sruthi describing the third pada says,:
Yatra supto na kancana kamam kamayate,na kancana svapnam pasyati,tat
shusuptam!shusuptastana Ekibhutah prajnanaghana evanandamayo hyanandabhuk
cetomukah prajnastritiya padah!!5!!.
Continuing it says:
Esha sarveshwara esha sarvajnah eshontaryamaishayonih sarvasya
prabhavapyayou hi bhutanam!!6!!.

Describing the fourth pada,the Turiya, Mandukya sruthi says,:
Nantahprajnam na bahishprajnam nobhayatahprajnam na prajnanghanam na
prajnam naaprajnam!
Adrshyamavyavaharyammagrahyammalakshanamacintyammavyapadeshyammekatma
pratyaya sarm prapancopashamam shantamshivamadwaitam caturtham manyante sa
Atmaa sa vijneyah!!7!!.

Regards,
Bhava Shankara Deshika me sharanam.                 N.Srikanta.






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