[Advaita-l] Did Vyaasa mean Athaato Vishnu Jijnaasaa or Shiva Jijnaasaa?

[Srinath Vedagarbha]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2016 at 5:04 AM, Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Namaste,
> In addition to the references quoted by Sri Subbuji, in Mundaka upanishad,
> para brahman is described as guNa and avayava rahita -
>
>
> In Shvetashvatara upanishad the word nirguNa is explicitly used to
> describe Brahman:
> एको देव: सर्वभूतेषु गूढ: सर्वव्यापि सर्वभूतान्तरात्मा |
> कर्माध्यक्ष: सर्वभूताधिवास: साक्षी चेता केवलो निर्गुणश्च ||
>
>

ekO dEvaha sarvabhootEshu gooDhaha sarvavyApee sarvabhootAntarAtmA
karmAdhyakshaha sarvabhootAdhivAsaha sAkshee chEtaa kEvalO nirguNascha ||

So, in this context we can not take 'nirguNa' as attributeless, because the
upanishat has already listed several attributes such as Ekatva, Devatva,
gooDhatva, sarva-vyAptatva, antarAtmatva, karmAdhyakshtva, adhivAsatva,
sAkshee-tva, chEtanatva and kEvalatva and then says Brahman is NirguNa.

Consistent with this upanishat, Brahman is kEvala and because of that
reason He is nirguNa i.e, not connected with any guNas ( such as
sattva-rajas-tamas) or prakrti. In otherwords, Brahman is not made out of
anything that belongs to prakrti. Whereas this creation is made out of
prakrti, no one made
Brahman including prakrti. For this reason, Shrutis call Him as NirguNa or
aprAkrita.

Many people think, nirguNa means nir-vishEsha (or attributeless ) but we
should remember that upanishat has already listed a host of attributes
before saying Brahman is nirguNa. Therefore 'nirguNa' must also be
interpreted consistent with the rest of the attributes that the upanishad
has given.






> In Mandukya, after describing PrAjna as Isvara, thus: एष सर्वेश्वर एष
> सर्वज्ञ एषोऽन्तर्याम्येष योनिः सर्वस्य प्रभवाप्ययौ हि भूतानाम्, para
> brahman, which the Upanishad enjoins us to know (स विज्ञेयः) is described
> as guNa rahita: नान्तःप्रज्ञं नबहिःप्रज्ञं नोभयतःप्रज्ञं नप्रज्ञानघनं
> नप्रज्ञं नाप्रज्ञम् ।
> अदृश्यमव्यवहार्यमग्राह्यमलक्षणमचिन्त्यमव्यपदेश्यमेकात्मप्रत्ययसारं
> प्रपञ्चोपशमं शान्तं शिवमद्वैतं चतुर्थं मन्यन्ते स आत्मा स विज्ञेयः ॥
>
>>
>>
Same here in this shruti also, nir-vishEshatva is not the tAtparya, because
it list host of other attributes. It uses 'Atma' and we all know the
definition of Atma as given by shruti itself elsewhere. For its own
question 'kathama Atma?', it only answers -- AtatatvAchha mAtrutvAdAtmEti
paramO hariH | AtmA bhAsAstadanyE tu na heYtEShAM tatA guNAH ||

/sv