[Advaita-l] DraviDa -Atreya Darshanam - Polaham Rama Sastry

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

Namaste Subbu ji
Thank you for sharing that interesting article on pre-Shankara vAkyakAra
(Atreya brahmAnanda svAminaH) and bhAShyakAra (Dravidacharya).  It was
referencing a nice quotation which I recollect you are fond of.
"syAt paramesvarasyApi icchAvashAt mAyAmayam rUpam sadhakAnugrahArtham".

I find it especially noteworthy that upAsya mUrtis of Ishvara, devataa etc
are not mano-kalpita or purely concocted by one's own imagination. Rather
they are yathA-bhUta-vat realities.

"In his bhashya, Dravidacharya says that bhagavadrUpa, the Lord’s form is
yathA-bhUta, that is, it is existent and goes on to observe that form is
not spoken of a devata which is formless; for sastra speaks only of what
is.  It is yathAbhUta-vadi.  It informs us of what has sattA.  True, there
is no instruction of rUpa in respect of what is arUpa, formless. "

I note that, from a bhakti point of view, this is quite significant. The
traditional forms of Shiva, Vishnu are *not* adhyAsa upAsanas like
meditation on Manas as Brahman etc.  Vedanta does not dismiss the forms of
Ishvara as mere cultural artefacts or imaginary entities, rather they are,
as vyAvahArika as the sun, moon etc., available for experience by the
akaluShita manas, as Sri Shankara says.

The article references Dravidacharya again -
"The meditation on the form of the Lord is not based on adhyasa or
supposition as in the meditation of mind as Brahman, etc., but it is the
meditation of the *existing rupa*. "

Sri Sankara too following the same text speaks in the same manner
(endorsing Dravidacharya).  This is what he says:

"There is no non-validity in respect of the texts which refer to the
subject of upasana.  Hence Sastra which speaks of upasana refers only to
the *actually existing atma, Isvara and devata, etc.*'


My observation - Thus Advaita fully endorses the vedic and Agamic forms of
Ishvara, as real and they have vyAvahArika sattA, notwithstanding being
within the realm of duality and hence not pAramArthika.

The notion of upAsanA being purusha-tantra does not imply that the bhakta
imagines a  form which has no existence apart from that very imagination.
Rather the forms of Ishvara are realities which are directly experienceable
by the shuddha antaHkaraNam - by sAxi pratyaxa pramANa.

The purusha-tantra nature of upAsanA merely implies freedom in choice of
Ishta devatA and the fact that there is some effort required to direct the
mind to repeat a suitable mantra etc.

Vakyakara says-
 atindriyamantah-karanapratyaksham, the Bhashyakara explains it as 'na
chakshusha grahyam manasa tvakalushena sadhanantaravata grihyate' and Sri
Sankara’s expressions for them are respectively "drishyate
nivritta-chakshurbhih, samahitachetobhih and brahmacharyadi-sadhanapeksham."

I note the expressions of vAkyakAra - "antaHkaraNa-pratyaxam" (this
Ishvara's form etc is a vastu-tantra pramANa-grAhya reality.) and
bhAShyakAra's endorsement "nivRtta-caxubhiH dRshyate".

 A person treks the Himalayas to Tapovan near Gangotri. That is a
puruShatantra activity, no doubt. He can choose to trek, or not to trek or
trek to some other place.  But thereafter the majestic otherworldly
Himalayan panaroma which is dRshyate and gRhyate is vastu-tantra alone.

Similar is the bhakta's upAsana of Ishvara's mantra and Agamic dhyAnam
leading to sAxi-pratyaxa of Ishvara's divine forms.

Om
Raghav

P S. As usual Ramanuja misunderstands and misrepresents Dravidacharya. He
does not realise that the apAramArthika nature of Ishvara's rUpa does not
render them figments of a bhakta's imagination.

Advaita validates all such bhakta anubhavas while giving a wide berth to
sectarian Vaishnavism.





On Fri, 31 Jan, 2025, 1:27 pm V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> This is a long Sanskrit article on the topic of  a pre-Sankara Advaitin.
> It has an English introduction too. The Sanskrit introduction too is
> present before the main text in Sanskrit.
>
> Download here:
>
>
> https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/dravida-atreya-darshanam-sri-rama-sastri.pdf
>
> regards
> subbu
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