[Advaita-l] 'Ishwaro'ham' and 'IshwarabhAvaH'

[V Subrahmanian]

On Fri, Sep 20, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Rajaram Venkataramani <
rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:


> the appearance of His body is due to His Maya not your ignorance. Please
>> refer Madhusudana's commentary where he also quotes Sankara's. If you think
>> that as per Advaita His form is due to your ignorance, then please cite
>> textual evidence from the works of acharyas.
>>
>
As per Advaita seeing anything as different from Atman is due to
ignorance.  And the apprehending of a form of Ishwara is no exception.
Even for a jivanmukta, the vision of a form is only vyavaharika satyam, for
Atman can never become an object.  'pUjArtham kalpitam dvaitam....'. In the
case of the jnani, these events are in the category of 'bAdhitAnuvRtti'
[the continuance, for a while, the unbinding effect of the nescience
negated due to Knowledge.]

 Shankara's all-encompassing statement is already cited in the past:

Br.sutra bhashyam 2.1.14:

तदेवमविद्यात्मकोपाधिपरिच्छेदापेक्षमेवेश्वरस्येश्वरत्वं सर्वज्ञत्वं
सर्वशक्तित्वं च न परमार्थतो विद्यायापास्तसर्वोपाधिस्वरूप
आत्मनीशित्रीशितव्यसर्वज्ञत्वादिव्यवहार उपपद्यते ।

//Thus, * only in the realm of the ignorance-created *upAdhis are Ishwara's
Lordship, Omniscience and Omnipotence, and not in the pAramArthika realm
which implies that the ignorance-created upAdhis have been
negated/dispelled by True knowledge.  In this post-negation scenario
the ignorance-realm
of Ishwara-Ishitavya (ruler-ruled) duality and omniscience, etc. do not
have a place.//

All forms of Ishwara (actually MS has not admitted any eternal form for the
Advaitic concept of Ishwara who lasts till time lasts, in other words,
vyavahaarika) that occur owing to avatAra, to bless aspirants, etc. come
within the range of the above bhashyam pronouncement.


English translation by Swami Gambhirananda (on Sri Sankaracharya's Sanskrit
Commentary)
BG 5.15 Vibhuh, the Omnipresent; na adatte, neither accepts; kasyacit,
anybody's-even a adevotee's; papam, sin; na ca eva, nor even; does He
accept sukrtam, virtue offered by devotees. Why then are such virtuous acts
as worship etc. as also sacrifices, charity, oblation, etc.offered by
devotees? To this the Lord says: Jnanam, knowledge, discriminating wisdom;
remains avrtam, covered; ajnanena, by ignorance. Tena, thereby; jantavah,
the creatures, the non-discriminating people in the world; muhyanti, become
deluded thus-'I do; I make others do; I eat; I make others eat.'

Thus, the Lord Himself acknowledges everything that comes in the range of
devotion is ignorance-based and forms of Ishwara are definitely in this
range.

regards

vs






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