[Advaita-l] [advaitin] The 'Parabrahman' of Advaita

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, Jan 12, 2016 at 6:25 PM, Srinath Vedagarbha via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 11, 2016 at 12:18 PM, Venkatesh Murthy via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> >  Namaste
> > There is no harm if Advaitis or anyone  say Vishnu is Para Brahman
> > because Vishnu means All Pervading. If Vishnu is Chaturbhuja with
> > Sankha Chakra and so on it is a limited form. Any form will have
> > boundaries and inside and outside that boundaries. Outside the form
> > that Brahman will not be there and inside the form it will be there.
> > Therefore it cannot be All Pervading. Because outside the form it is
> > not there. Therefore Nirguna and Niraakaara Brahman is the Unlimited
> > Para Brahman. Saguna is the limited form of that Unlimited Brahman.
> >
> >
> As other member said (about Uma), when prasiddhi artha exist for Vishnu
> shabda as refering to rUpa chaturbAhu/lakshmIpati etc , why resort to
> yOgika artha as "all pervading" ?
>

This is because the shruti explicitly precludes a / any rūpam for Brahman:
काठकोपनिषद्भाष्यम् । द्वितीयोऽध्यायः । षष्ठी वल्ली । मन्त्रः ९
न संदृशे तिष्ठति रूपमस्य न चक्षुषा पश्यति कश्चनैनम् ।
हृदा मनीषा मनसाभिक्लृप्तो य एतद्विदुरमृतास्ते भवन्ति ॥ ९ ॥

The Kenopanishat too teaches that Brahman cannot be seen by eyes. This is
because the property called 'rūpam' can be perceived with the
chakshurindriyam only.

na tatra chakshur gacchati na vāk no mano... Kenopanishat

That is why, in the Bh.gita 11th ch. Arjuna, unable to stand the
vishvarupam pleaded for the chaturbhuja rupam to be revived.  This shows
that while divya chakshus was required to view the vishvarupam, the
chaturbhuja rupam did not need it; his physical eyes could perceived them,
as they have always been.


This Brahmasutra 3.2.14 too precludes rupam for Brahman:

अरूपवदेव हि तत्प्रधानत्वात्
भाष्यम्
रूपाद्याकाररहितमेव हि ब्रह्म अवधारयितव्यम्, न रूपादिमत् । कस्मात् ?
तत्प्रधानत्वात् ;‘अस्थूलमनण्वह्रस्वमदीर्घम्’ (बृ. उ. ३-८-८)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=Brha&page=03#BR_C03_S08_V08>
 ‘अशब्दमस्पर्शमरूपमव्ययम्’ (क. उ. १-३-१५)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=Kathaka&page=01#Ka_C01_S03_V15>
, (मुक्ति. २-७२), ‘आकाशो वै नाम नामरूपयोर्निर्वहिता ते यदन्तरा तद्ब्रह्म’
(छा. उ. ८-१४-१)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=Chandogya&page=08#Ch_C08_S14_V01>
 ‘दिव्यो ह्यमूर्तः पुरुषः सबाह्याभ्यन्तरो ह्यजः’ (मु. उ. २-१-२)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=Mundaka&page=02&hval=%E2%80%98%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%B5%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%8B%20%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%82%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%B7%E0%A4%83%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%AD%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%8B%20%E0%A4%B9%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%83%E2%80%99%20(%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81.%20%E0%A4%89.%20%E0%A5%A8-%E0%A5%A7-%E0%A5%A8)#MD_C02_S01_V02>
 ‘तदेतद्ब्रह्मापूर्वमनपरमनन्तरमबाह्यमयमात्मा ब्रह्म सर्वानुभूः’ (बृ. उ.
२-५-१९)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=Brha&page=02#BR_C02_S05_V19>
 इत्येवमादीनि वाक्यानि निष्प्रपञ्चब्रह्मात्मतत्त्वप्रधानानि, न
अर्थान्तरप्रधानानि — इत्येतत्प्रतिष्ठापितम् ‘तत्तु समन्वयात्’ (ब्र. सू.
१-१-४)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/php/format.php?bhashya=BS&page=01&hval=%E2%80%98%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%81%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A8%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A5%8D%E2%80%99%20(%E0%A4%AC%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0.%20%E0%A4%B8%E0%A5%82.%20%E0%A5%A7-%E0%A5%A7-%E0%A5%AA)#BS_C01_S01_V04>
 इत्यत्र ; तस्मादेवंजातीयकेषु वाक्येषु यथाश्रुतं निराकारमेव ब्रह्म
अवधारयितव्यम् । इतराणि तु आकारवद्ब्रह्मविषयाणि वाक्यानि न तत्प्रधानानि ;
उपासनाविधिप्रधानानि हि तानि ; तेष्वसति विरोधे यथाश्रुतमाश्रयितव्यम् ; सति
तु विरोधे तत्प्रधानानि अतत्प्रधानेभ्यो बलीयांसि भवन्ति — इत्येष विनिगमनायां
हेतुः, येन उभयीष्वपि श्रुतिषु सतीषु अनाकारमेव ब्रह्म अवधार्यते, न
पुनर्विपरीतमिति ॥ १४ ॥

The Brahmasutra, next one, explains the purport of those shrutis that
accept rupam from Brahman.

And in the Advaita siddhi/commentary, it has been clearly stated that there
is no such thing as 'aprākṛta rūpam/shariram' which is beyond the creation.
While prākṛta bodies are products of pancha bhutas, the aprākṛta shariram
that Brahman assumes during avataras are a direct manifestation of
maya/prakriti without the need to pass through the panchabhutas.

regards
subrahmanian.v


This will be problematic only for those they wrongly think that rUpa-s of
> Parabrahman are similar to rUpas-s as delineated/limited in space as we
> know it in mundane world.
>
> /SV
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