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

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sadananda prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I follow simple rules in all these.

 First, there is nothing to argue but something to recognize.  Brahman's 
swaruupa lakshaNam is satyam, jnaanam and anantam - these  are not 
attributes but its intrinsic nature of Brahman. 

> very aptly said prabhuji.  Yes, brahman's intrinsic nature is satyaM, 
jnAnaM, anantaM.  While talking about the lakshaNa-s of brahman, shruti at 
the same time talks about visheshaNa-s also.  It is satya kAma, it is 
satya saMkalpaH and this visheshaNa includes his jnAna, Ishwarya, shakti, 
bala, veerya, tejassu shadguNa-s and hails him as shadguNa saMpanna. sa 
cha bhagavAn jnAnaishvarya shakti balaveerya tejObhiH sadA saMpannaH says 
bhagavatpAda in geeta bhAshya.  And no doubt these guNa vishesha-s 
attributed to Ishwara and subsequently negated in nirguNa nirvishesha 
brahman and accepted only three lakshaNa-s i.e. satyaM, jnAnaM anantaM. 
But what exactly these three??  satya is which is 
unchangeable...tadrUpeNa, yannischitaM tadrUpaM na vyabhicharati tat 
satyaM...it is the ONLY satya kAraNa (brahman) behind this vikAra kArya 
(jagat). This satyatvaM of brahma lakshaNa would prove that brahman is the 
ONLY avikAra kAraNa behind this vikAra / vyabhicharita / changeable jagat. 
 Like gold which is the ONLY satya kAraNa behind vikAra-s such as ring, 
bangle, bracelet etc. And now what is jnAna nature of brahman??  The 
kAraNa behind this kArya is NOT 'jada' it is inherently jnAna svarUpa. And 
this jnAna is not kevala vrutti jnAna like knowledge of pot, knowledge of 
cloth etc. it is kevala jnAna (jnapti) or visheshya jnAna. like gold jnAna 
by seeing the ring, bangle etc.  It is in other words visheshaNa rahita 
visheshya jnAna or unchangeable (avyabhicharita) jnAna.  This jnAna has 
the capacity to illumine every vikAra that exists in the kArya form. Hence 
this jnAna is called sarvabhUtAntarAtma jnAna. And now the question is 
whether this kevala jnAna svarUpa brahman is sarvajna or not??  In the 
absence of vishesha jnAna (kArya jnAna) can we say this jnAna svarUpa 
brahman is sarvajna??  shankara answers this question in Itareya : saH 
sarvajnasvAbhAvyAt AtmA eka eva san Ekshata.  and in sUtra bhAshya (1-1-5) 
: yasya hi sarva vishayAvabhAsana kshamaM jnAnaM nityamasti saH asarvajnaH 
iti vipratishiddhaM.  So, IMHO, when we accept that jnAna svarUpa is 
inherent nature of brahman, it invariably follows that this jnAna has the 
capacity to illumine everything (if everything is there) and in the 
absense of everything (sarva) also there is no lack of this nature in 
brahman. And finally what is anantatvaM of brahman??  the antatva 
(finiteness) that we see in jnAtru, jneya and jnAna (vrutti) triputi is 
not there.  jnAtru cannot become jnEya, and jnAna would be restricted to 
the only jneya vastu (vishesha jnAna) one cannot enter the territory of 
another hence it is finite...But in brahman this anatatva is not there 
because what is behind there in jneya is nothing but that (since it is the 
abhinna nimittOpadAna kAraNa)and jnAna (kevala) would have the vyApti in 
the vishesha jnAna and jneya (jeeva) is nothing but that brahman 
only....Hence it is called anantaM (infinite) which is OtaprOta in all 
these triputi (sarvaM khalvidaM brahma). And this again shows that though 
ultimately braman is in his very nature nirvikAri there is nothing apart 
from this adviteeya brahman.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar