[Advaita-l] [advaitin] 'Prana' as Brahman

[V Subrahmanian]

Thank you very much Venkat ji for the elaborate explanation with copious
citations from the BSB.

Regarding this part of your post:

//So where does this leave Kailasha and Shiva (or viShNu and Ishvara)? We
have to draw a corollary based on the above conclusions and the tatkratu
nyAya (the upAsaka attains the object of his meditation).

So, to explain: The travel of the upAsaka is to Kailasha, which is
kAryabrahma loka. The sAyujya there is with the the object of his upAsana,
Paramashiva (tatkratu nyAya). There is no requirement that the sAyujya is
only with kArya brahma, it can be sAyujya with Ishvara also. Therefore, the
sAyujya for the one who worships Parameshvara as Shiva, is with Ishvara in
the form of Lord Shiva - not a sAyujya with a jIva, as in the case of the
hiraNyagarbha upAsaka.

However, as the upAsaka has not attained jnAna, Ishvara as Shiva will
Himself teach the upAsaka brahmavidyA in kailAsha and the upAsaka attains
videhakaivalya at the end of the kalpa. The laya that happens at the end of
the kalpa is only to the loka,  not of the Lord himself, for he is nitya
siddha Ishvara. However, in the case of hiraNyagarbha, the laya is of the
kArya upAdhi of hiraNyagarbha - however as hiraNyagarbha is a jIvanmukta
already, that dissolution of the kArya upAdhi is akin to Him attaining
videhakaivalya. //

Regarding the nitya siddha Ishwara, if the name Vishnu or Shiva is assigned
to that entity, here is an input:

In the ‘Advaita Siddhi’ of Sri Madhusūdana Saraswati [Pariccheda 2, p.745
of the Edition published by MM Ananthakrishna Shastry] is stated:

//etena bhagavallokāderapi nityatvam apāstam. Na cha ‘ato hi vaiṣṇavā lokā
nityāste cetanātmakaaḥ. matprasādāt parām śāntim sthānam prāpsyasi
śāśvatam’ ityādyāgamavirodhaḥ, tasya avaAntarapralayasthatvaparatvāt.
Tasmāt nirguṇam nirākāram brahma iti siddham. Iti advaita siddhau brahmaṇo
nirākāratva siddhiḥ//

[Thus (in view of the foregoing arguments), the ‘eternality’ of
divine/lordly/worlds too stands negated. One ought not to raise an
objection that the following scriptural passage is contradicted by the
above conclusion: ‘Therefore indeed the Vaiṣṇava loka-s are eternal and are
sentient in nature. By My grace you shall attain the state of great and
eternal peace.’ The ‘eternality’ stated in this passage has its purport in
the ‘avāntara pralaya’, intermediary dissolution. Thus stands established
that Brahman has no form in the work called ‘Advaita siddhi’.]

The ‘Laghuchandrikā’ gloss by Gaudabrahmānanda adds:

‘There is no pramāṇa for the existence of a Vaikunṭha loka which is not a
product’ [abhautika-vaikunṭhaloke mānābhāvāt.’//

tasya uktāgamasthanityādipadasya । avāntareti ।

“ātmā vā idameka evāgra āsīnnānyatkiñcanamiṣat”,

“eko ha vai nārāyaṇa āsīt na brahmā neśāno nāpo nāgnīṣomau na ime
dyāvāpṛthivī na nakṣatrāṇi na sūryaḥ”

ityādiśrutibhiḥ pralaye
sakalakāryasaṃskāropahitamāyāvaccinnacinmātrasattāmuktvā


[The above shruti passages show that during pralaya just the
‘māyāvaccinnacinmātra’ exists. What qualifies the māyā? He says:
sakalakāryasaṃskāropahita..the latent state of the entire created world (of
the previous creation which has just got dissolved). So, during pralaya
just the above qualified maya-associated Brahman (cinmātra) Pure
Consciousness alone exists. That is, nothing else in the form of vyakta,
exists that can be identified as ‘this is so and so’. ]

“sa īkṣata lokānnu sṛjā iti sa imān lokānasṛjat । so’kāmayat”

ityādinā tasya dhyānāntasthasyetyādi puruṣāścaturdaśā jāyantetyādi
pañcatanmātrāṇi mahābhūtānītyādinā ca
sarvalokaghaṭitaprapañcasṛṣṭeruktatvāt,

[The above means: based on the shruti cited, that mayavacchinna chinmātra
Brahman deliberated, ikṣata, ‘let me create these lokas’ and thus desired.
The creation of the universe consisting of all the lokas, sarvalokaghaṭita,
takes place through the medium of the panchatanmātras, etc. By explaining
thus, the laguchandrikā implies that there was no loka called by any name
whatsoever during pralaya. ]

Thus, while the kAryabrahma loka resolves in Mahapralaya, the nitya siddha
Ishwara remains over as mAyAvacchinna-chinmAtra during the maha pralaya and
continues to bring out the next srishTi.

To sum up, from your detailed note:

The kAryabrahma loka is the abode which can be given the name of
Kailasa/Vaikuntha where the upAsya Shiva/Vishnu resides. The sAyujya of the
upasaka with that upAsya happens in that loka alone. In Mahapralaya the
loka resolves and while Hiranyagarbha moves on to attain videha kaivalya,
the Shiva/Vishnu personality (who is the nitya siddha Ishwara) remains
over.  The name/form to this nitya siddha Ishwara is optionally available
to the upAsaka on the basis of the shruti/puranas. This is because there
can't be more than one nitya siddha Ishwara.  The aishwarya /bhoga the
mukta jivas there share with Hiranyagarbha/Shiva/Vishnu excludes the power
to create, sustain and dissolve the universe.

Om