[Advaita-l] upAsanam of bhagavan waters the tree of all existence

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Jaldhar ji
Do you have a cut pasteable portion of the shridharI vyakhyA for this verse?

The interesting thing is that the gauDiya vaiShNavas identify that same
shloka of Bhagavatam as being reiterated in gItA १८.६६ viz., sarvadharmAn
parityjaya *mamekam* sharaNam vraja...

Yet for Sri Shankara, even that popular gItA shloka is explained by him as
extolling the formless Ishvara dwelling in all living beings.
सर्वधर्मान् परित्यज्य
संन्यस्य सर्वकर्माणि इत्येतत् । माम् एकं सर्वात्मानं समं सर्वभूतस्थितम्
ईश्वरम् अच्युतं गर्भजन्मजरामरणवर्जितम् ‘अहमेव’ इत्येवं शरणं व्रज, न मत्तः
अन्यत् अस्ति इति अवधारय इत्यर्थः

The operative part in the above passage being - worshipping Ishvara who
dwells in all of creation,  as one's own self, one is freed from sorrow.

So where srimad Bhagavatam talks of achyutejyA = acyuta + ijyA = acyuta
sacrifice/worship subsumes all worship of all other worship-worthy
entities. (That is the bhAgavata idea.)

 The same word 'acyuta' (the blemishless One) in gItA 18.66 bhAShya is
explained as, Ishvara who is devoid of the defects of being in a womb,
birth, old age and death.

So this acyuta worship (acyutejyA) is - sarvabhUtastham acyutam aham evam
iti avadhAraNam

 (which is a type of nididhyAsanam if preceded by sufficient Atma vicAra,
or at least the highest form of ahamgrahopAsanam, even if it's held on to
as an 'affirmation'.)

And of course there is nothing amiss in asserting the excellence of
nididhyAsanam over all other worship of formed devatAs.


Om
Raghav



On Sat, 9 May, 2020, 2:37 PM Jaldhar H. Vyas via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> On Sat, 9 May 2020, Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l wrote:
>
> > The ISKCON movement likes to quite the above verse though they take it
> > (wrongly) to mean that worship of all other devatA-s is subsumed under
> > Krishna worship.
>
> In this case they have the correct understanding as the Shridhari on this
> shloka indicates.  The import of this entire adhyaya is that Vishnu
> Bhagavan is the cause of all and pervades all.  Therefore by worshipping
> Him, you are worshipping everything that comes from Him.
>
> Of course you can take this the other way.  By worshipping anything (that
> is fit to be worshipped) you are actually worshipping Vishnu Bhagavan
> albeit by an indirect route.  In fact that is what Krishna Bhagavan says
> in Gita 9:23.
>
> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
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