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

[V Subrahmanian]

Yes, Venkat ji, this exercise was very needed and I had these questions for
a while and wanted a threadbare analysis of the various aspects involved
here, in the light of the BSB.  Thanks for making this so well.  These
posts will be a very valuable addition to the archives of these groups.

warm regards
subbu

On Tue, Feb 21, 2023 at 12:17 PM Venkatraghavan S <agnimile at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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
>>
>>
>>
>