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

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Srinath Vedagarbha prabhuji
Hare Krishna

You are correct, all statements which seems to yield to alternate meanings must be reconciled (saManvaya) with other explicit shruti/smriti vAkya-s.

>  Yes, that samanvaya needs to be done keeping in mind the ultimate siddhAnta of shruti that brahman is ekamevAdviteeyaM.  Attaching the avidyA to brahman before srushti and calling mUla prakruti as avidyA (mUlAvidyA) is 'anishta' to Advaita vedAnta siddhAnta and 'sugrAsa' to dvaita mata for the refutation of this type of Advaita :-)

For example:

 paramOpaniShad explains (in the context of wherever/whenever shruti equates this jagat to dream) on how one must understand such sentences as

>  I don’t know about this paramOpanishad and its contents but shankara himself in saNdhyAdhikaraNa clarifies why svapna srushti or objects in svapna srushti treated on par with jAgrat srushti though jAgrat srushti is Ishwara's 'satya sAmkalpika srushti'.  Since the svapna has been created by jeeva by  the vAsana-s of jAgrat avasthA bhAshyakAra clarifies both states compared and equalized.  It does not anyway mean that satya sAmkalpika Ishwara srushti is like avidyAkalpita svapna srushti of jeeva.   
-- 

"anitva vikAritva pAratantraAdi rUpataH | svapnAdi sAMyam jagatO, na tu bhOdha nirvatyAtA | sarvajnasya yatO vishNuH  sarva dvaita pratIyatE | bhOdhAsahaM tato naitat kMtvAjnAvashamasya hi"

When this dvaita jagat is in Vishnu's knowledge (pratIti) and since He is sarvajna, how can His knowdge is brAnti and how can this jagt be mithya?

>  In Advaita also we say the same thing but little differently.  bhAshyakAra clarifies in phalAdhikaraNa that in all the scriptures (sarva vedAnteshu) 'Ishwara hetuka' srushti has been advocated, dhAta yathA pUrvamakalpayat etc. would support this view point.  And in the geeta 13th chapter saMbandha bhAshya shankara clarifies the nature (prakruti) consisting of 3 guNa-s which is subservient to and within the fold of brahman transforms into all effects the instruments of life and the objects of experience and gets assembled in the form of body and indirya-s for the bhOga and apavarga of purusha.  And in this context only in sUtra bhAshya bhagavatpAda clarifies : Ishwara is the 'Hetu' THE CAUSE OF CREATION and that Ishwara is hetu means  he creates the jeeva-s according to their own karma.  Ishwara is karmAdhyaksha and he is karmaphaladAta.  Nowhere in the sUtra bhAshya shankara asserts that this jagat which has pAramArtha as its content is jeeva's avidyA kalpita srushti.  OTOH, he openly denies that kriyAshakti to jeeva ( for even siddha purusha-s) and attributes it to sarvajna and sarvashakta Ishwara.  And we cannot assume that this type of teaching is meant for inferior sAdhaka-s and jeeva's avidyA srushti is for uttama adhikAri-s at any stretch of our imagination since latter is anishTa for the vedAnta prakriya in general and advita pratipAdana in particular.  mAdukya and kArika bhAshya etc. should be understood in this light only not otherway round.  

Jagat sristi is Brahman's svalaxaNa (and not due to association with
avidyA)  is quite explicit in bhAgavata 10th skanda 5th slOka --

EkaM paraMjyOtir ananyam adhvayam sva-smastAyA nitya nirastakalmaSaM, brahmAkhyam asyOdhbhavanAdi hEtubhiH sva-lakShaNai lakShitabhAva nivrutim

>  And even in Advaita / shurti  Ishwara is nitya shuddha, Buddha, mukta can never ever be endowed with avidyA to say by holding the  avidyA he does the creation.   

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar