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

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Subbuji

Thank you. What you have said below is consistent with my understanding.

I am very happy that you found support from the laghuchandrikA for the
bhautikatva of vaikuNTha / kailAsha. Despite the laya of the loka, the
continued existence of Ishvara with
sakalakāryasaṃskāropahitamāyāvaccinnacinmātrasattā during pralaya is
precisely what I wanted to convey.

I'm glad that you brought this topic up for discussion because in seeking
to reply to you, I have developed a better understanding of the subtlety in
this aspect of the bhAShya.

Kind regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Tue, 21 Feb 2023, 06:15 V Subrahmanian, <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>
>
>