[Advaita-l] Fwd: What is 'aprAkRta' ?

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Aug 6, 2011 at 4:06 AM, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
> > Could you pl. indicate where the above two terms appear in the bhashyam?
> >
> I dont know how to write in sanskrit on this.
> vishishtopadhi (bg 15.15).
>

While introducing verse 15.16 Shankara recalls what was stated by the Lord
in verses 15.12 onwards.  These verses happen to talk of the glories
(vibhUti-s) of the Lord such as His being the Light even for the luminous
bodies sun, moon, etc.  This, Shankara says, is a specially attributed
nature of Brahman, vishishtopadhiH. That shows that according to Shankara
this nature of Brahman being the luminosity of the luminous entities, etc.
is not its svarUpalakshanam but only owing to a superimposed attribute.


> ishanashila: or lord by nature (bg 15.18) this is with respect to Narayana,
> the omniscient, nirupadhikara brahman. so omniscience is not due to upadhi.
>

This word,  ishanashila, occurs at the end of the commentary for 15.17.  In
fact even at the very beginning of the gita commentary Shankara invokes a
purANic verse on NarayaNa, depicting Him as saguNa Brahman only.
Throughout, as per context, Ishwara means only saguNa Brahman.  Here too, in
15.17 Shankara says this Omniscient One, Ishwara. the One who is by nature
the Governor, called Narayana...is the one who pervades/enters the entire
universe.  Evidently it is a description of SaguNa Brahman.

In 15.16, while introducing it, Shankara separates the verses up to and
including 15.15 which spoke of the sopaadhika Brahman from the rest of the
verses from 15.16 onwards as delineating the nirupAdhika Brahman.  This
nirupAdhika Brahman is the one free of the upAdhis of kshara and akshara.
The svarUpa, the essential nature of Brahman, is what gets determined in the
rest of the verses says Shankara.

It is to be understood that even the IshanashIlatva, sarvajnatva, the
sarvavyApakatva/sarvapraviShTatva, etc. of Brahman are owing to / related to
the created world which exists as the manifest, kshara and the unmanifest
akshara.  Even in 15.17 that saguNatva vestige is not totally severed.  ONLY
in 15.18 it gets completely severed by the word uttamaH.  One, perhaps the,
strong indication of this complete severance of saguNa upAdhis is this:  the
bhashya says: He who knows Me the PuruShottama as 'I am He'....  'ahamasmi
iti puruShottamam'.  Surely the knowing jiva/aspirant cannot claim the
attributes of sarvajnatva/sarvapraviShTatva, IshanashIlatva, etc. described
above as his own attributes.  That shows that the aikya jnanam can occur
ONLY after discarding all those attributes and knowing Brahman as kevala sat
chit ananda svarUpa which is also the jiva's real nature after discarding
the five koshas consisting of the body-mind-ego apparatus.



> bg 14.27 is also relvant
>

Even here, Shankara gives the saguNa-para meaning first and then gives the
nirguNa-para vyAkhyAnam.  In the latter, He considers the word 'brahman' as
saguNa brahman and says that the Lord is the abode/support of that saguNa
Brahman.

adhikarapurusha (bsb 3.3.32)

The above purusha is only an exalted jivanmukta with exceedingly great puNya
at his credit that Ishwara does not let him go out of the created universe
so easily.  He wants such a special person to occupy certain great cosmic
positions and exhaust all his puNya thereby and then finally get completely
liberated, videha mukti. VyAsa is such a person/position. Sun, sUrya, is
another.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v

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