[Advaita-l] (Advaita) Bhakti vs. Jnana

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

On 11 August 2011 07:40, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> शिव इत्यहमित्युभौ न भिन्नौ शिव एवाहं अहं शिवः स एव ।
> यदि नैवं अनात्मता शिवस्य प्रसरेत् अशिवत्वमात्मनोऽपि ॥
> [The two, Shiva and I, are not different. 'Shiva' is 'I' alone and 'I'
> is/am
> 'Shiva' indeed.  If such were not the case then 'Shiva' will end up as
> 'anAtmA' (since anything other than the Atman, aham, is anAtma. And
> therefore jaDa, anitya.) And not just that, Atman will become a-shiva,
> amangala. This is because if aham, atman, is not admitted to be Shiva, it
> is
> only 'ashiva', amangala, inauspicious. Surely, none would like the prospect
> of being inauspicious.]
>
> It may be remembered here 'Shiva' is not the saguNa Ishwara, but the
> Supreme
> Brahman.  And 'aham' is not the paricchinna jIva but the shodhita tvam
> padArtha.



Yes, this is precisely what I am also saying. Ultimately, the AtmA alone is
priyam.

If one thinks of Shiva as Ishvara and as separate from the AtmA, then Shiva
becomes anAtmA and AtmA becomes limited. When one removes both jIvatvam and
Ishvaratvam through shodhita tvam padArtha and tat padArtha, the non-duality
of the AtmA is realized.

The distinction between vAchyArtha and lakShyArtha applies not only to tvam
pada but also to tat pada.