[Advaita-l] Kumarila Bhattas devotion to Shiva Bhagavan

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste,
The speaker, Sri Subbaraya V Bhatta is talking of the role of Ishvara in
pUrvamImAmsa. After saying that Ishvara is not the jagat kartA, nor the
karma phala dAta, nor is he sarvajna according to the system, he quotes the
tantra vArttika of kumArila bhaTTa to clarify that an Ishvara is accepted,
but his nature and role is different from other darshana-s.

In the grahaikatvAdhikaraNa of the tantra vArttika, there is a discussion
that occurs in the context of whether the intention of the sentence 'graham
sammArShTi' is to convey singleness to the graham, the yajna vessel, or
not. A natural question is - whose intent is it? A person, or the veda? The
answer given is that it is the veda's intent to convey that particular
meaning. A further question is raised - how can words have an intent, if
not spoken by a person. In answer to that question, kumArila bhaTTapAda
says (selectively quoting from the talk):

ऋग्वेदादिसमूहेषु क्षेत्रज्ञा ये प्रतिष्ठिता: |
तेषां वायमभिप्राय: स्याद्विवक्षाविवक्षयो: ||
All translations by Mahamahopadhyaya Ganganatha Jha) Or again, the
"Intention" and "Non-intention" spoken of might refer to the Intelligences
ensouling the various vedic collections, Rgveda and the rest.

तथा व्योमशरीरोपि परमात्मा श्रुतौ श्रुत: |
इज्यते वारिणानित्यम् य: खंब्रह्मेति चोदित: ||
The veda also speaks of the paramAtma inhabiting a body of AkAsa, when it
declares 'ijyate variNA nityam yah kham Brahma".

शब्दब्रह्मेति यच्चेदं शास्त्रं वेदाख्यमुच्यते
तदप्यधिष्ठितं सर्वमेकेन परमात्मना ||
And the veda also, which is spoken of as 'shabda brahma', is ensouled by a
single Great Soul.

तथर्ग्वेदादयो देहा: प्रोक्ता येऽपि पृथक् पृथक् |
भोग्यत्वेनात्मनां तेऽपि चैतन्यानुगता: सदा ||
And hence the Rigveda, etc which are spoken of separately, all belong to
the soul and are endowed with conscious intelligence.

शब्दब्रह्मात्मनोप्येवम् सर्ववेदानुसारिण: |
विवक्षा वा अविवक्षा वा वक्तव्या विधिशक्तित: ||
In this manner, it is quite possible to attribute, on the strength of the
potency of the Injunctive, the said "Intention" and "Non-intention" to the
soul of the Shabda Brahman, which pervades all the vedas.

Using these vArttikas, the speaker argues that the Ishvara in pUrva mImAmsa
is the paramAtma who has been spoken of in the shruti as having no physical
body, the intelligence principle that pervades vedic words, whose intent is
manifested in vidhi and niShedha.


Kind regards,
Venkatraghavan


On Tue, Nov 13, 2018 at 8:19 AM Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Not able to open the link from my office desk top.  Would it be possible
> to share the gist of this link pls. ??
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>
>
> This may help:
> https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FABKqC0CUGFA&data=02%7C01%7Cbhaskar.yr%40in.abb.com%7C9c23f2cf9e1847d5fc5b08d6493f9bd8%7C372ee9e09ce04033a64ac07073a91ecd%7C0%7C0%7C636776934882549527&sdata=qvPqVZMY9KEgfFanMtMoJdY3TnJ6acHosO2iGrMlCfY%3D&reserved=0
> Regards
> Venkatraghavan
>
> _______________________________________________
> Archives: http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/
> http://blog.gmane.org/gmane.culture.religion.advaita
>
> To unsubscribe or change your options:
> https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/cgi-bin/listinfo/advaita-l
>
> For assistance, contact:
> listmaster at advaita-vedanta.org
>