[Advaita-l] Vaadiraaja Teertha's Yuktimallika - Advaita Criticism - Slokas 1-605 to 1-627

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

The full shwEtAshwatara upanishad goes like :

"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.


No, nirguNatvam is not a guNa, no matter how many verbal gymnastics one may
try. Rather, the verse addresses how this eka deva is simultaneously the
gUDha sarvavyApI sarvAtmA of the innumerable aneka bhUta-s. And still
remains alone, kevala, one only, eka eva.

It's just like saying nirguNaH and guNabhRt right next to each other, or
sarvendriya guNAbhAsam and sarvendriya vivarjitam right next to each other.

Vidyasankar