[Advaita-l] Iswara swaruupam - 3

[rajaramvenk at gmail.com]

I don't want to get in to this swami said that or that. Let's focus on what sastras and Sankara say. If one says what Sankara says, then he is a Sankarite. Sankara clearly says that the omniscient lord is the source of the universe through the two prakrtis. He also says that the paraprakrti is essentially Himself. And apara prakrti is evil. There is no room for your magic formula for Ishwara. (As an aside, Sankara has also solved the philosophical problem of evil by saying that apara prakriti is unreal). 

If you say Ishwara's upadhi has to be overcome for you to become liberated, then forget liberation because you cannot remove His upadhi. You can use any euphemism for kill but you are essentially trying to get rid of Ishwara not just your ignorance about Him. 

I call this Nirishwara Advaitam different from Sankara's Advaitam. It is no mean philosophical achievement.
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-----Original Message-----
From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2012 23:24:09 
To: <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Iswara swaruupam - 3

On Mon, Apr 2, 2012 at 8:24 PM, <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

>  So, your equation Ishwara = Brahman + Apara Maya has no basis in
> Sankara's words especially when Sankara says para maya is essentially
> Ishwara.
>


In the BG 7.15 for the word 'mAyAmetAm' Shankara writes:
'sarvabhUtamohinIm' the one that deludes all the beings.  In the previous
verse too, Shankara gives this same meaning for the 'three guNa-s'.  And in
Vedanta 'mAyA' and 'prakRti' are used synonymously, even as it is done in
the BG itself.  So, Ishwara = Brahman+ aparA mAyA has a strong basis in
Shankara bhashya.  In the 7th chapter, for the word 'parA prakRti' Shankara
comments: 'kShetrajna lakShaNAm'.  And this kShetrajna is the 'hero' of the
13th chapter where Bhagavan says: I am the kshetrajna.  In Advaita the
liberating knowledge is: 'I am the kShetrajna/sAkShI/dRk'.  And this very
chapter teaches that the kshetra is the transformation/manifestation of the
aparA prakRti.  The purpose of the chapter is to discriminate between the
kshetrajna and the kshetra and show that the former alone is the
Consciousness principle and the latter the inert one. At the Cosmic level,
I just heard Sw.Paramarthananda on Atmabodha, that Brahman along with this
prakRti (aparA) is called Ishwara.  When the word prakrti is used without
qualification it always means the aparA, call it 'evil' for it deludes and
binds one and has to be got rid of.

And when Ishwara is said to be with prakRti what is meant is, the
three-guNa prakRti is at His service.  And prakRti is said to be evil
because even though it has sattva which releases one from samsara, yet it
has sattva which also binds one (14th chapter BG).  In any case one has to
transcend sattva too, guNAteeta, to be liberated.  And Ishwara is said to
be with 'shuddha sattva upAdhi' while the jiva's is the malina sattva
upAdhi. When it is required in Advaita that all upAdhis are to be
negated/given up, it goes without saying that the IshwaropAdhi too is
included in this.  It does not remain over, for it has no purpose to serve.


Ishwara in reality: Will you worship Rama thinking that one day I will get
> rid of Him because He is after all a product of impure prakrti ?  It is
> like getting in to a marriage with the intention to kill the spouse (saguna
> brahman) for insurance money (nirguna brahman).



This is the argument of those critics of Advaita who have not understood
Advaita.
In Advaita Ishwara is not 'killed'.  On the other hand, just like
everything else, Ishwara too is sublimated as NirguNa Brahman.

subrahmanian.v