[Advaita-l] Shankara and DrishTi-SrishTi vAda - eka jeeva vaada

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Sri Praveenji, Sri Anandji

A follow-ups came to mind, thought I would share.

1) It is precisely for the reason that DSV reduces sattAs to only two,
namely pAramArthika and prAtibhAsika, that some scholars (Martha Doherty et
al) hold that DSV runs contrary to Shankaracharya's own beliefs.  However,
this view ignores Shankara's bhAshya on the MAndUkya kArika, where by
denying a higher level of reality to the waking world vs. the dream world,
in effect, Shankaracharya and Gaudapadacharya were talking of two levels of
sattA also - pAramArthika and a mithyA one. This was the subject of the
paper that I sent earlier to this group.

2) Secondly, the very interesting thing (at least from my perspective), is
that Drishti-Srishti vAda effectively collapses the whole micro-macro
jiva-Ishvara view that we are typically taught, into one single micro view,
which is the cause for the apparent macro. For example, traditionally, we
are first taught that the micro worldview comprises of vishvA, taijasA and
prAjna; the macro worldview comprises of virAt, hiraNyagarbha and  Ishvara.
Then we are taught of the equivalence of the micro with the macro (vishvA
with virAt, taijasA with hiraNyagarbha, prAjna with Ishvara). DSV does away
with all that and starts off saying that the prAjna, who is none other than
Ishvara, creates everything else - taijasA / vishvA and virAt /
hiraNyagarbha! Pretty fascinating stuff.

3) Thirdly, the objection that people have about DSV - if DSV says the jIva
creates the world, how come he does not have sarvajnatvam? - ignores a
fundamental aspect of DSV. There is no ajnAta sattA (things that are not
"perceived"/known, do not exist) at all in DSV. Essentially, what this
means is that the jIva, is in fact sarvajna in DSV - for only things that
he knows, can exist !

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 2:00 PM, Praveen R. Bhat via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Anandji,
>
> On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 6:08 PM, Anand Hudli via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> >
> > One more astounding thing about DSV/eka-jIva-vAda, as
> > elucidated brilliantly by PrakAshAnanda, is that he reduced the sattA
> > traividhya of pAramArthika, vyAvahArika, and prAtibhAsika sattA to only
> two
> > pAramArthika and prAtibhAsika!
>
>
> Thanks, this is precisely what I was thinking! Moreover, prAtibhAsika is
> not completely freewill-based as people seem to think. I don't have the
> choice to dream exactly what I want to dream, similar to SDV where Ishvara
> doesn't create the world as per his whims and fancies. So I would think
> that the question as to why I created the world this way is as irrelevant
> in DSV, inasmuch as it is in SDV as to why Ishvara created the world so. It
> just is so and it doesn't affect my mukti.
>
>
> > There is no vyAvahArika sattA at all! Since
> > the objects of the waking state are not any more real  than those of the
> > dream state, why bother to call them vyAvahArika satya? They are
> > prAtibhAsika satya too, not any better than dream objects. More on this
> > later.
> >
>
> Unfortunately we hold on to prakriyAs/vAdas and reject others based on the
> one we understand, as if they are the ultimate truth and lose focus of
> their purpose. Even in SDV, finally we have to say that not only jIva, but
> Ishvara, Shruti, bhashya, all are mithyA. Who imagined is a moot point
> then. I remember what Pujya Swami Dayanandaji says in the context of aikya.
> For some reason, people find it comparatively easy to say "I am brahman",
> because they think that brahman is consciousness, so its not really a big
> deal. However, when it comes to saying "I am Ishvara", people hesitate, are
> even scared! IMHO, this verisame thing is seen while assessing DSV.
>
> BTW, as you said siddhAntapradIpikA doesn't seem to be available, even on
> archive.org.
>
> praNAm,
> --Praveen R. Bhat
> /* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
> [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
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