[Advaita-l] About Saguna Brahman / Ishwara

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Apr 16, 2025 at 7:37 AM Raghav Kumar Dwivedula via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste Subbu ji
>
> As you said-
>
> 1. NB + mAyA = Ishvara
>
> 2. shakti or mAyA is the consort of the male Ishvara.
>
> it becomes tricky because on the upAsya side (statement 2) mAyA is not jaDa
> while in the technical sense (statement 1), mAyA is jaDa and Ishvara alone
> can be the cetaNa mAyIn.
>
> To accommodate both Shiva and Shakti being cetaNa,  I read about the
> analogy somewhere  of a dancer when in fluid dance being Shakti and when
> holding a pose being Shiva. Not sure if there is any classical reference to
> this dancer in movement vs dancer is still pose,  analogy.
>

Raghav ji,

This opening verse of the Soundarya lahari could give some thoughts:




*Shivah shakthya yukto yadi bhavati shaktah prabhavitumNa chedevam devo na
khalu kusalah spanditumapi;Atas tvam aradhyam Hari-Hara-Virinchadibhir
apiPranantum stotum vaa katham akrta-punyah prabhavati*

Lord Shiva, only becomes able.
To do creation in this world along with Shakthi
*Without her, Even an inch he cannot move,*
And so how can, one who does not do good deeds,
Or one who does not sing your praise,
Become adequate to worship you
Oh , goddess mine, Who is worshipped by the trinity.

However, in the Sankhya analogy, the dancer, nartaki, is prakriti, which
they accept as jaDa, and the Purusha, obviously chetana, is the one who is
offered entertainment/enjoyment bhoga and apavarga by prakriti. So, in this
analogy the dancer is jaDa.

I think in the Vedanta-friendly upasana, the jaDa prakriti is 'personified'
(figure of speech) when it is posited as the consort Umā. That way the
upasana is possible by accommodating praying to Her. Sri Ramakrishna said:
Māyā is both avidya and vidya. Resorting to the former (rajas and tamas)
tightens the bondage and resorting to the latter (sattva) loosens and
destroys bondage.

regards
subbu

>
> Om
> Raghav
>
>
>
> On Tue, 15 Apr 2025 at 10:27 PM, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>
> > On Tue, Apr 15, 2025 at 5:56 PM Kaushik Chevendra <
> > chevendrakaushik at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > >  “ This shakti is maayaa which has to be there for Brahman to create.
> In
> > > other words, this shakti + NB is Ishwara. If this shakti is denied,
> there
> > > is no SB at all.”
> > >
> > > From a bakthi perspective I think this is why we also do Pooja of
> Shakthi
> > > Sametha isvara. Lakshmi Narayana, Radha Krishna, Sita Rama, Parvati
> > > Parameshwara, Rukmini Krishna etc.
> > >
> >
> > Yes, exactly.  That shakti is represented as the consort of the male
> Ishwra
> > rupa.
> >
> > regards
> > subbu
> >
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