[Advaita-l] No Parinama in Brahman says Shankara Bhagavatpada

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sudhanshu prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Whether it is "gold appearing as ornament" or "bangle converting into gold"
-- there is activity. And that is against nishkriyatva.

>  Your observation is quite logical and needs attention.  Yes, there needs to be some activity to accept the creation (whether it is vivarta or pariNAma) hence Advaita when talking about brahma kArya (activity) jagat it brings in apara brahma, when there is talk about nishkriya brahman it directly talks about parabrahma.  Kindly look at sUtra bhAshya 4.3.14.  Now the question, is this aparabrahman/ saguNa brahman/sOpAdhika brahman/kArya brahman something different from parabrahman??  The obvious answer is big NO, why??  Because, sadeva Soumya idamagra asit, ekamevAdviteeyaM clarifies shruti.  

I understand that the standard answer would be -- from the point of view of gold, there is no activity. But from the point of view of gold, there is no ornament itself.

>  I would like to read this as :  from the point of view of gold ( can the brahman has the point of view!!??  Just wondering 😊 ) there is no activity since the socalled ornament (nAma rUpa kArya) is nothing but gold (kAraNa) We may take note of the upAdhi drushti and svarUpa drushti as well here to understand how jagat is nothing but brahman but brahman is not jagat.  When the ornament seen as ornament it is upAdhi drushti (parichinna drushti) but when the same ornament seen as gold then it is svarUpa drushti.  Since there is no independent existence of ornament apart from gold, kArya 'as it is' anrutam but the same kArya is satyaM when it is viewed from its svarUpa drushti.  bhAshyakAra explains this in chAndOgya : sarvaM cha nAmarUpAdi sadAtmanaiva satyaM vikArajAtaM svatastu anrutaM eva, ... From the realization of sAmAnya behind all these vishesha-s only we can find the answer to the question : kasminnu bhagavO vijnAte sarvamidaM vijnAtaM bhavati ??  he is the abhinna nimittOpadAna kAraNa of this jagat hence the shruti statement : sarvaM khalvidaM brahma, sarvaM brahmamayaM jagat.  

The problem is -- gold CANNOT appear as ornament unless there is space which is different from gold. Brahman CANNOT appear as world unless there is something different from Brahman. A singular object cannot appear as anything else. And that is not possible in advaita.

>  it has been called as mAya (not avidyA atleast in my Advaita dictionary though popularly floating theory is avidyA = mAya ) the shakti of brahman which is  brahmAnanya.  That which has been  called as mUla prakruti (again it is not mUlAvidyA which is an unwanted contribution by later vyAkhyAnakAra-s to shankarAdvaita) that is the brahma.  ( yA mUlaprakrutiH abhyupagamyate tadeva cha nO brahma)  says sUtra bhAshya.  This mUla prakruti / shakti / mAya is the svarUpa of brahman hence lord in Geeta affectionately says : mama svarUpabhUtA madeeya mAyA.  I just wonder what would have been the result had I replaced the word mAya with avidyA here 😊 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar