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

[Anand Hudli]

On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 5:56 PM, Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l
< advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
> 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.
>

The philosophy of Yoga Vasishtha is somewhat different from Shankara's
advaita but there are many common points as well. Ananda-bodhendra is said
to have been a disciple of Gangadharendra Sarasvati of the 19th century.
PrakAshAnanda derives his DSV/ekajIvavAda from Gaudapada, Brahmasiddhi,
Ishtasiddhi, Yoga Vasishtha, and of course Shankara's works. He accepts the
VivaraNa school's view that Brahman is the Ashraya for avidyA.

>
> , "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.

Where exactly does he say the waking world is pAramArthika? In fact,
Shankara says quite the opposite in his BhAShya on the sUtra lokavattu
lIlAkaivalyam (2.1.33). na ceyaM paramAthaviShayA sRShTishrutiH
avidyAkalpitanAmarUpavyavahAragocaratvAt...



>
> 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!!

If you take the view of DSV/ekajIvavAda, the entire Gita upadesha is for
the draShTA, the person who studies it for liberation. He/she does not have
to worry if Arjuna imagined everything in his mind, etc. Arjuna himself is
imagined by the draShTA. The same anology of a dream tiger waking you
up, i.e. liberating you, can be applied.

Anand