[Advaita-l] Who Is the Ultimate GOD in Vedic dharma ?

[H S Chandramouli]

On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 12:18 PM, Shrinivas Gadkari via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote



<<While there is enough evidence in our Puranas that
glorify viSNu or shiva or gaNapati or any other deity,
as the Ultimate GOD, there is also equally compelling
evidence to start thinking that none of these are the
Ultimate GOD.

Who then in the Vedic dharma is the Ultimate GOD?

Here is my understanding:
- The "Adi-puruSa" who is glorified in the puruSa sUkta is the
  most promising candidate for the Ultimate GOD of Vedic dharma.
- Very likely, this is the uttama puruSa of gitA chapter 15.
- Even bhAgavatam clarifies in Book 1, Chapter 3, Shloka 1,
  (and indirectly at other places) that puruSa is the original
  avatAra of bhagavAn (the GOD of bhAgavatam). And all other
  avatAra-s of bhagavAn are parts of this puruSa avatAra.
- brahmA, viSNu, shiva, gaNapati are major avatAra-s of this
  puruSa avatAra.

For sake of completeness, upAsanA texts of the any specific deity
include a reference to puruSa avatAra as the supreme form of their
chosen deity (which is not incorrect), and also the source of
"other" deities (this is also not incorrect).

For example, a vaiSNava text would use a term like "mahA viSNu"
to refer to the puruSa avatAra, and go on to say that brahmA,
and shiva are parts of "mahAviSNu". On the other hand a shaiva
text would use a term like "sadAshiva" or "paramashiva" to refer
to puruSa avatAra, and go on to say that brahmA, and viSNu are parts
of "sadAshiva" or "paramashiva". Note that, in principle this is
accurate, however for most of the people, these statements can be
the primary source of misunderstanding or confusion.  >>



In the absence of ascribing  any particular characteristic for the
proposed  "Adi-puruSa", it would be difficult to identify who or what is
being referred to by this term. Clearly Sri Srinivas Gadkari Ji is not
admitting any of  the entities mentioned in the responses so far posted in
the thread to meet the requirements. In all the responses so far, the one
entity left out is Brahman endowed with mAya. Would it not be appropriate
to identify this with the "Adi-puruSa" referred to.



Regards