[Advaita-l] Is Isvara paramartika?

[Bhaskar YR]

Sri Subrahmanian: Ishwara is definitely not the absolute; He is relative 
to
the created world and the jivas.
RV: I raised this question earlier and the following is the answer from 
Sri
Devanathan, an academic scholar with traditional training. It is from 
Volume
77 Issue 9. Prof. Lance Nelson (University of San Diego) takes the 
position
that you do. Dr. Sanjukta Gupta Gombrich (Oxford) also takes the position
that Isvara is relative though she states that there is difference in the
position between vartika and vivarana schools. My position is that Isvara 
is
absolute but not for the reasons that Sri Devanathan states. In my view, 
it
should be based on direct textual evidence for the definition of Isvara 
from
pre and post Sankaran advaitins resolving apparent conflicts through
logic. 

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Kindly refer shankara's AraMbhaNAdhikaraNa sUtra bhAsya with regard to 
this.  Shankara quite explicitly mentions here that Ishwara, IshwaratvaM 
etc. holds good only at transactional level where jevEshwara bedha is 
there!!  tadevaM avidyAtmakOpAdhiparicchedApekshameva Ishwarasya 
IshvaratvaM, sarvajnatvaM, sarvashaktitvaM cha..." na paramArthataH 
vidyayA apAstasarvOpAdhisvarUpe Atmani Ishtreeshitavya sarvajnatvAdi 
vyavahAraH upapadyate.  No ambiguity here in shankara's declaration.  He 
clearly states that the existence of Ishwara and his qualities like 
omnipotence, omniscience etc. are only in the realm of avidyA.  So, IMO, 
before deciding anything about Ishwara's paramArta astitva (absolute 
existence) , we have to reconcile these statements of shankara and most 
importantly without disturbing the shruti-s and advaita's ultimate 
position i.e. Atman's ekamevAdviteeyatva. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar