[Advaita-l] Introduction and important question on saguna brahman devatas

[Nithin Sridhar]

The answer to the question, whether the various deities that are not
mentioned in various canonical texts that you call as demi-gods will lead
to Moksha or not, depends on various factors.

1. A deity should be understood only with connection to devotee. Some
people may worship Ganesha as only a god who can remove obstacles. Hence,
for them, Ganesha's ability or the ability of the shakti generated from
such a sadhana is limited to removing obstacles. Some may worship Ganesha
as lord of Muladhara chakra. For, then Ganesha presides over whole Physical
Universe. And for some Ganesha is Brahman itself. Such, an upasana
ultimately will lead to Moksha. Hence, whether a deity will lead to Moksha
or not depends mostly on how a devotee perceives and worships the deity.

2. The other aspect of this is that, Shakti is infinite. And hence it has
infinite forms. Irrespective of the devotees, Deities do exist in their
archtypes. The rishis of various mantras only brought forward these
archtype deities that were already existing. Hence, even the hundreds of
Gramadevata, Sudhra devata, or any other deities do exist in their archtype
form, whether one worships them or not. Many upasana's performed in the
hoary past is not available to us today. Similarly some new type of
Upasana's, new variant of deities have also been discovered. Hence, all
these deities are invariably various aspects of the one Shakti and they
eternally exist in their archtypes. Some deities come higher in the
hierarchy and some lower based on their individual archtype. When Shakti is
understood as containing 64 aspects, each aspect becomes a Yogini. When
Shakti is understood as containing 10 aspects, each becomes a Mahavidya.
So, Naturally a Mahavidya is higher than a Yogini.

3. Hence, if a person worships any of the deities in their limited aspect,
then the result is also limited. If, a person worships the deity as
Para-Brahman itself, the result attained is Moksha.


You may find this old article of mine useful-
A deity can be God or god or both-
https://nithinsridhar.wordpress.com/2013/06/21/a-deity-can-either-be-god-or-god-or-both/

Regards,
Nithin


On Sat, Apr 4, 2015 at 8:18 PM, k.s.krishna moorthy via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Dear devotees,
>
> My name is Krishna and I am a follower of Sri Ramana Maharishi's school of
> teachings and I rely on Self Enquiry and Devotion as two wings which I
> alternate between and do sadhana to my modest extent.
>
> Some of you here will know me , I have posted quite a number in Sri Graham
> 's forum.
>
> With that small introduction, let me formulate my doubt here to the
> learned members.
> I have posted this same question in another advaita forum but did not
> receive any reply from learned members.
> The objective is not to argue , but to get things clarified.  All I want
> to know is the right approach of saguna upasana and which devatas qualify
> to be the fully powerful Ishwara.
>
> We all know about Saghuna Brahman and its upasana.  There is also the
> concept of Krama Mukthi where upasaka finds his deity in Satya Lokha and
> then attain Moksha along with the Brahma of this kalpa. (the current Brahma
> is 51 years old ,  this is the morning hours in Satya Lokha)
>
> Now when we say Saguna Brahman, a form is given to Nirguna Brahman.  The
> forms Lord Shiva, Lord Vishnu and Divne Mother Shakthi -- (trinity of
> shakthis), Lord Ganesh, Lord Subhramanya are generally accepted by Shankara
> followers to be the same Brahman manifested as Ishwara according to the
> modifications of the devotee.
>
> But we also have other deities nowadays -- esp. warrior gods like
> Muneeshwaran,  Karupanasami etc.,
> We have forms of kali that protects villages with numerous names.
> We have naga forms of deities worshipped in par with main Gods.
>
> we have vedic gods like Agni, Varuna, Indra etc. (though nobody worships
> them nowadays)
>
> my question is,  are the latter set of deities demi-gods? ,  but if
> someone thinks of them as  Saguna Brahman itself and worships them , then
> what is the result?  Is there karma for these demi-gods? what happens to
> the worshipper, if one of this demi-god say completes his portion of karma
> in the demi-god plane and then incarnates as human being in earth?
>
> do they have limited authority in the scheme of things in creation?  and
> if someone gets boons from them,  how that works?  do they have authority
> to burn some of our bad karma?  and if someone wrongly offers animal
> sacrifices in this age of kali, do the demi-god also incur karma or only
> the person who sacrifices?
>
> Or it is exactly as per our imagination, perception and the power we
> attribute to them?
>
> here my main question is not about the well recognized and well quoted
> forms by great Acharyas like Adhi Shankara -- he has created panchayadhana
> pooja etc.  I dont question that .
>
> My main question is about sub-ordinate deities which were not quoted by
> great Acharyas.
> On one end, we know that Ishwara does not have definite form like Shiva or
> Vishnu but takes any form. But at the same time all demi-god forms may not
> qualify to become Ishwara.  How to resolve this ?
> can someone clarify these matters clearly to me?
>
>
> It looks like I have asked many questions  but the essence is same.  so
> sorry if you get a bit fed up,  i don't expect line by line answer,  i
> kindly request to answer after getting the essence and gist of my questions.
> Regards,Krishna
>
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