[Advaita-l] Creation by Brahman - only a nimitta - Vishnu Purana - Sridhara Swamin

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Kalyan prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Here are the advaitin's positions-

1. Brahman is the instrumental cause
2. Brahman is devoid of action
3. Moving power is inherent in mAyA (about which the advaitin refuses to explain) 4. At the same time, the advaitin accuses the sAmkhya that the inactive purusha of the sAmkhya cannot cause pradhAna to move

In the first place, 1 and 2 are contradictory.

>  Not so atleast according to my understanding of Advaita :-) brahman is the instrumental as well as material cause and he is nishkriya as well.  Infact both are the verdicts of shruti itself.  That shruti which says brahman is achakshushkaM ahrotraM avAk amanaH ( see bruhadAraNyaka for example) same shruti elsewhere attributes both nimitta and upAdAna kAraNa to jagat as well (satyam anrutancha satyamabhavat yadidaM kincha..yatO vA emaani bhUtAni jAyanti yena jAtAni jeevanti tad brahma tadvijijnAsasva -taittireeya).  Sri SSS somewhere observes  that we should not adopt 'ardha kukkuti nyAya' here to selectively pick only brahma nirguNatvaM and nishkriyatvaM and ignore the shruti which also says brahman's upAdAna and nimitta kAraNatvaM especially when bhAshyakAra categorically declaring Ishwara hetuka srushti is 'VEDAANTA MARYAADA'.  Infact bhAshyakAra in the second adhyAya , first pAda ArambhaNAdhikaraNa, itaravyapadeshAdhikaraNa, upasaMhAradarshanAdhikaraNa, sarvOpetAdhikaraNa etc. clarifies how brahman is the ONLY jagat kAraNa despite shruti siddhAnta that brahman is ultimately nishkriya,  nirguNa and ashareeri.                


Secondly, 1 and 3 are contradictory. The advaitin is unable to decide whether the instrumental cause is brahman or mAyA.

>  sarvashaktitva (omnipotence) is inherent (svabhAva) in brahman and there is no Shakti-shakta bheda when we are talking about creation power of brahman.  Again kindly refer above adhikAraNa-s for the further clarity.  All these sentences need to be understood that brahman is the ONLY thing that existed without second.  Sadeva soumya idaM agra Asit, ekamevAdviteeyaM.  
>  Ofcourse, its all boils down to how effectively we do the reconciliation work (samanvaya) with regard to shruti vAkya with the aid of bhAshyakAra's clarification.  By the way, mAya is not avidyA in my Advaita dictionary to find the locus of advidyA in brahman :-) 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar