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

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Anand Hudli prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Thanks for clarification prabhuji.  Some additional thoughts from side :

This can be answered in two ways. First, adhikAri-bheda can be a consideration which required Shankara to accept the difference between jAgrat and svapna states. Ananda-bodhendra Sarasvati in his commentary on the Yoga Vasishtha says

>  Kindly pardon me for the interruption, is this vyAkhyAna kAra from vivaraNa school prabhuji??  Just curious to know nothing else.


, "jIvanmuktAnAM dRShTyA dRShTi-sRSHhTivAdasyaiva shAstre pratiShThApanAditi bhAvaH". From this it is clear dRShTi-sRShTi-vAda, which holds dream and waking states are nondifferent, is suitable for advanced sAdhakas or even jIvanmuktas, 

>  IMHO its all depends on through which drushti he (Jeevan mukta) would see the srushti...whether it is brahmaikatva drushti, samatva drushti or samyak drushti or something else.  In any case, shankara clarifies what would be the samyak drushti of the jnAni after the realization in chAndOgya :  prAk sadAtma vijnAnAt svAtmanOnyasmAt sataH pANAdernAmAntasya utpatti pralayaU abhUtAm.  SADAATMA VIJNAANE TU SATI EDAANEEM SVAATMATA EVA SAMVRUTTAU, tathA sarvOpyanyO vyavahAraH Atmana eva vidushaH.  The bhAshya vAkya is self-explanatory.  According to shankara jnAni is nothing but brahman and brahman is the kAraNa for the srushti-stiti-laya of the jagat, jnAni / brahman realizes that everything (including vyavahAra) from HIM only.  In this sense EJV holds good, since here jnAni was erstwhile 'jeeva' only.  In this view point only shankara says svapna kartru is brahman only hence no difference between jAgrat and svapna prapancha.  


whereas the brahmasUtras' method of treating the two states as different mainly for "beginners" and "intermediate" level mumukShus.

>  interestingly while stating the difference, shankara brings in pAramArtikatvaM to the waking world.  

Second, as Shri Venkatraghavanji pointed out, Shankara's intention in the brahmasUtras was to refute vijnAnavAdins' arguments, not those of GauDapAda, which he does accept.

>  Not only while refuting the vijnAna vAda, but also independently shankara observes in 'sandhyAdhikaraNa'  that jAgrat prapancha is Ishwara srushti and in its kAraNa rUpa pAramArthika satya  and svapna srushti is mithya eva there is no 'smell' of pAramArthika in svapna prapancha.  As far as my limited knowledge goes nowhere shankara categorically says this jagat is the creation of jeeva who is endowed with avidyA / ajnAna.  I have seen quotes on nAsatO vidyate bhAvO from geeta to prove the jagan mithyatva it is really amusing to say the least, this verse is about mithyatva of arjuna's shOka, mOha and cause for it is his (arjuna's) avidyA / adhyAsa.  If everything is mithyA and kalpita geetAchArya would not have said na tvevAhaM jAtu nAsaM na tvaM neme janAdhipAH, na chaiva na bhavishyAmaH sarve vayamataH paraM etc. And if everything is mithyA / kalpita of arjuna, geetAchArya would not have taken the trouble  of showing his 'vishwarUpa' and declaring yad yad vibhUti matsatyaM etc.  :-) What is kalpita (asat)  here is arjuna's shOka-mOha, rAga dvesha, sukha-duHkha, sheeta-ushNa and the kAraNa for this is arjunA-s parichinna drushti, avidyA drushti, aparipUrNa avidyA kalpita drushti that bheeshma drONAdi-s are his kith and kin and attachement to them & his wrong perception that killing them would bring him the sorrow.  Those who quote this verse in support of jagan mithyatva should atleast understand that this verse is not there to prove that battle field of kurukshetra, geetAchArya Krishna, geetOpadesha, vishwarUpa of Ishwara are all figment of imagination of avidyAvanta Arjuna (jeeva).   

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!
bhaskar