[Advaita-l] Eternal Loka

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Dear Shri Subrahmanian,
 
First of all I would like to acknowledge the huge efforts that
you put into writing your posts with appropriate citations
for various commentaries. 
 
I would like to point out another way of looking at nirguNa 
brahma. To clarify my viewpoint let me be outright in mentioning
that my primary devotion is to the veda-s, vedAnata. From the
different teachers (including Shri Shanakaracharya), I do not
mind picking that which makes sense, and leaving out something
that does not appeal (to my current understanding). Also I mix 
and match what I have picked from different teachers, to create
a consistent picture that tallies with my experience and also
my interpretation of experience of others - including accounts
from Puranas.
 
So coming back to another way of looking at nirguNa brahma:
The entire creation already exists in nirguNa brahma, and 
Adi mAyA, only projects what already exists in brahma.
The need to project arises, because, the creation that exists
in brahma is very very abstract, made of connections between
"abstract thought processes". Adi mAyA through successive 
steps of AvaraNa-vikshepa projects, amplifies and colours this
abstract creation. This is the phenomenon of vimarsha.
 
Bhaktas refer to Adi mAyA as Adi mAtA. Based on this view of
creation and brahma, it becomes increasingly clear that the
upAsanA of Adi mAtA is that precious upAsanA that will give one 
both the worlds - manifested vishva and increasing proximity
to the cause of the world - nirguNa brahma.
 
gAyatrI, chaNDikA, shrI vidyA are some of the names of the
approaches to the upAsanA of Adi mAtA. From paurANika accounts
we learn that even the trinity are what they are because
of their devotion to Adi mAtA.
 
hari Om,
 
Regards,
Shrinivas
 
(May I request you to simply refer to me as Shrinivas, I am much 
younger to you.)
 
 
---------------------------------
Dear Shrinivas ji,

The reply posted by Sri Sadanandaji is quite in order in conveying the
Advaitic position.  Here is a A significant bhAShya sentence in this regard
is:  At the very  end of the bhashya for the kArikA 1.2 we have: ...’नेति,
नेति’ इत्यादिना वीजवत्त्वापनयनेन व्यपदेशः । तामबीजावस्थां तस्यैव
प्राज्ञशब्दवाच्यस्य तुरीयत्वेन देहादिसम्बन्धरहितां पारमार्थिकीं
पृथग्वक्ष्यति । [...and It is referred to, by refuting Its causal state, in
such Vedic texts as, ....Not this, not this etc.  That supremely real state,
* free from causality*, relation with body, etc. and modes of waking etc,
of that very entity that is called prAjna, will be spoken separately in its
aspect as the Turiya.]

The Turiya of the Mandukya upanishad is kArya-kAraNa vilakShaNam.  That
means: It is neither an effect of anything nor the cause of anything.  The
causehood is positied on it, adhyAropa, by the shAstra, just to make the
aspirant turn towards it.  Otherwise, the totally attributeless entity,
brahman, can easily be dismissed as not existing at all.  Just in order to
give it an attribute the shAstra calls it the cause of the world.  But when
it has been recognized to exist, then the causehood is dropped.  It is like
the identification mark, the crow, sitting on a house that one is looking
for amidst many houses of the same type.  Once he has identified the house,
it is not necessary that the crow should be there.  After all, the crow is
not an integral part of the house.  In the same way, the causehood is not
an integral part of Brahman.  Brahman can and does exist without that
attribute.  Just as the house can and does exist without the crow upon it.
If understood in this manner, as Shankaracharya has shown above, one can
appreciate that the NirguNa brahman has no connection whatsoever with the
creation.  That it is the substratum for the superimposed world is also a
concession, for the sake of helping the seeker.  When the Vedanta siddhAnta
is that the sole non-dual reality is Brahman, the talk of creation,
creatorhood, etc. is only an 'as if'.

Trust this helps.

regards
subrahmanian.v