[Advaita-l] svabhAva of Atman IS 'sarvajnatvaM'

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare krishna

Kindly pardon me for the late response from my desk.  I said earlier, I 
was too busy at office and week end holidays as well ( had to attend 
couple vaidika functions like dattu sveekara and Sri rAma pattAbhishekaM 
as Ritvika).  Hence I was not able to concentrate on this issue 
appropriately.  But,  in the meanwhile,   many mails have been exchanged 
between Sri Subbu prabhuji and Sri Chandramouli prabhuji on this topic and 
surprisingly I have not seen any active  participation from other senior 
prabhuji-s like Sri Vidya prabhuji, Sri Vyas prabhuji, Sri Anand Hudli 
prabhuji and others.  Anyway, what I thought now is, instead of replying 
to earlier pending mails, let me share my thoughts in a separate mail with 
a different heading so that prabhuji-s would come to know what exactly I 
am trying to convey.

01.  Ishwara & his qualities are kevala vyAvahArika satya in advaita :

Yes, I myself argued somany times here in this forum as well as at other 
places that according to advaita, Ishwara and  his qualities like 
omnipotence, omniscience etc. are mere vyAvahArika satya which is kevala 
avidyA kruta.  shankara clarifies his stand on Ishwara in sUtra bhAshya 
ArambhaNAdhikaraNa (2-1-14) which we have seen earlier so, no need for any 
elaboration on this point as we dont have any disagreement here.

02. Ishwara with mAya upAdhi has the qualities of omnipotence, omniscience 
etc. NOT brahman :

Here we have some disagreement I believe.  Sri subbu prabhuji saying 
without 'sarva' (nAma rUpAtmaka jagat) we cannot attribute sarvajnatva to 
nitya shuddha buddha, mukta brahman which is ultimately nirguNa, 
niravayava and nirvikAra.  So, to prove Ishwara's sarvajnatva prior 
existence 'sarva' nAma rUpAtmaka jagat is must.  Without srushti of 
'sarva' no question of sarvajnatva to Ishwara / brahma.  He continues to 
say that brahma with the help of mAyOpAdhi (shakti) would become Ishwara 
and this Ishwara is the jagatkAraNa and NOT the brahma which is nirguNa & 
nirvishesha.  In short the equation would be : 

(a) brahman + mAyOpAdhi (shakti) = Ishwara 
(b) Ishwara - mAyOpAdhi (shakti) = brahman.
(c) brahman with the mAyOpAdhi would become Ishwara and engage himself in 
creation.

According to him, (b) cannot have the qualities of Ishwara since  (b) is 
devoid of any upAdhi (nirupAdhika) and (a) is the ONLY cause of this jagat 
srushti since (a) has the mAya as his upAdhi and capable to do srushti 
kArya.  As a result,  ONLY Ishwara (mAyAshabAlita) who does the creation 
has the qualities / attributes like sarvajnatva and sarvashktitva and 
these attributes will not be suited to nirvishesha brahman. 

03.  brahman (adviteeya) has the svabhAva of sarvajnatvaM :

Here I would like to put across my thoughts.  Yes, shankara says in geeta 
bhAshya (for example 13-5, 13-9 etc.) mAya is Ishwara shakti, the potence 
of the lord.  But how can we attribute the lordhood in non-dual brahman?? 
does it not require the distinction between the ruler (creator) and the 
ruled (creation) ?? But point to be noted here is when vedAnta accepts the 
vyAkruta jagat and its beeja rUpa (avyAkruta prakruti) it clearly says 
brahman is the only substratum of this appearance (srushti) and there is 
NO other source apart from brahman to this universe.  yatO vA imAni 
bhUtAni jAyante, yena jAtAni jeevanti, yatprayantyabhisaMvishanti, 
tadvigijnAsasva, tad brahma says tai, up., yaH sarvajnaH, sarvavidyasya 
jnAnamayaM tapaH tasmAdetadbrahma nAmarUpamannaM cha jAyate says mundaka 
shruti, sa EkshAmchakre, sa prANamasrujata says prashna.  From all these 
it is clear that brahman is the ONLY cause (both material as well as 
efficient) for this srushti. In AtmaH krute pariNAmAt sUtra bhAshya 
shankara clarifies there is not external sahakAri kAraNa for this creation 
and brahman is the ONLY creator and creation by quoting tai.up. 
tadAtmAnaggu svayamakuruta.  If we argue that it is not brahman, it is 
only Ishwara with a separate karaNa (instrument) called mayOpAdhi does the 
srushti kArya then it is as good as attributing paricchinnatva to Ishwara 
argues shankara in sUtra bhAshya.

Now, coming back to brahman's sarvajnatvaM, sarvashaktitvaM etc. If we 
know that brahman is the ONLY adviteeya cause for this jagat we would know 
how inherent this shakti, jnAna of sarva to brahman.  Here the word 
'sarva' is what created by brahma (tadAtmAnaggu svayamakuruta) by using 
his inherent svabhAva of sarvajna.  The jnA here is self, vyApaka is self 
in sarvavyApaka, shakti is self in sarvashaktitvaM.  The omniscient source 
should be brahman says shankara in the very first sUtra of vedAnta athAtho 
brahma jignAsa & second sUtra as well janmAdasya yatha.  From this it is 
very clear that as the consciousness is the nature of brahman, so also the 
shakti, jnAtvaM etc. are the very nature of brahman.  jnAna, shakti, 
anantatvaM etc. are very nature of brahman.  satyaM, jnAnam anantaM brahma 
says up.  Here jnAna denotes he has the jnAna of everything and with this 
jnAna only he 'first' thought let me become 'many' etc.  Though here jnAna 
etc. is not vAchya to describe brAhma we have to take it as 'lakshaNa' of 
brahma since it is the ONLY source to the jagat (abhinna nimittOpadAna 
kAraNa).  And this brahma is sarvajnA clearly says shankara in sUtra 
bhAshya (1-1-5) yasya hi sarvavishayAvabhAsana kshamaM jnAnaM nityamasti 
saH asarvajnaH iti vipratishiddhaM.  But question here arises is brahman 
is ekamevAdviteeyaM there is nothing second to him to  illumine and there 
is nothing second to him to 'know' so how can we attribute sarvajnatvaM 
etc. Here we have to note that when we say brahman has the sarvajnatvaM, 
sarvashaktivaM etc. we are not saying so by considering the 'act' of 
illumination, 'act' of creation etc.  Even when there is no object there 
to create or illuminate we brahman is inherently sarvajna.  Dont we say 
'prakAshita sUrva' even if  there is nothing to get illumined by sUrya by 
taking prakAsha as his very nature??  dont we say mirror reflects even if 
nothing is there to reflect??  And in sushupti, have we ever say Atman is 
jnAna shUnya here since there is no object in that state??  He does not 
have any karaNa nor kArya there is nothing on par or superior to him etc. 
says up. na tasya kAryaM karaNaM cha vidyate, na 
tatsamashchAbhyadhikashcha drushyate (sv.up.) And it is in this context 
only shankara quotes those up. vAkya-s in IkshatAdhikaraNa (1-1-5) in 
sUtra bhAshya.  pashyanvai tanna pashyati na hi drashtuH drushtEviparilOpO 
vidyate avinAshitvAt clarifies shankara in bruhadAraNyaka (4.3.23). 
sarvavishesha rahitOpi jagatO mUlaM ityavagatatvAt astyeva (brahma) says 
in ka.up. bhAshya.  Likewise, shankara makes an interesting comment on 
svayaM jyOti svarUpa of Atman in prashana up. Here he clearly says from 
self luminous nature to final realization (mOksha) all transactions are 
through mind etc. upAdhi and hence it is in the sphere of avidyA but the 
very nature of svayaM jyOtitvaM can not be denied by any arrogant tArkika 
:  svayaMjyOtishtvAdi  'vyavahAraH amOkshAntaH sarvO avidyAvishaya eva 
mana AdyupAdhi janitaH..............svayaMjyOtishtvaM (tu) sudarpitEnApi 
tArkikeNa na vAraetuM shakyate..(prashna 4.5) Here also the vyavahAra word 
is very important to understand this context as I said earlier. 

And now finally we shall look  what exactly shankara says in Itareya 
upanishad.  The very first maNtra in this upanishad says : AtmA vA idaM 
ekaM evaM agra Aseet | na anyat kiMchana mishat | sa Ikshata lOkAnnu srujA 
iti || Here we have to study the bhAshya vAkya completely to know how 
brahman has the 'sarvajna' as his svabhAva.  Shankara without any 
ambiguity clarifies : saH sarvajna svAbhAvAt AtmA eka eva san Ikshata, 
nanu prAgutpatterakAyakaraNatvAt kathameekshitavAn??.........nAyaM dOshaH, 
sarvajnA svAbhAvyAt.  One should study whole bhAshya bhAga carefully to 
know how the Atman which is ekam eva adviteeyaM has the svabhAva of 
sarvajnatvaM. 

Since this mail has already become very lengthy I would like to stop here 
with this short note.  Though vyavahAra of Ishwara and his qualities have 
been negated in ultimate stage, brahman has always have the inherent 
qualities of sarvajnatva and sarvashaktitva etc. These inherent qualities 
of paramAtma would be projected through upAdhi when we talk about 
sOpAdhika apara / kArya brahma. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar

PS : Please bear with any spelling mistakes and other errors as I typed 
this in a hurry in the middle of year end auditing busy schedule.