[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Quotes from samkshepa shaareeraka

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Hare Krishna Bhaskar prabhu ji.

With your permission I have given some subject heading along with some
> quick observation from my side.  Hope it is OK with you 😊
>

It is certainly ok from my side and you are entitled to have your
observations/ideas/understanding.

As per shankara / gaudapAda IshwarAnugraha is must even to get Advaita
> vAsana and he is mOksha pradAta / jnAna pradAta.  He is not our fanciful
> mental construction.  After the dawn of jnAna jnAni realizes that
> IshAvAsyaM idam sarvaM not that in the post realization period jnAni would
> think that Ishwara is the strawman constructed foolishly by me during my
> dense, dark and deluding ignorance period.  I am afraid the above
> observation is at best definitely an atheistic statement. Does the
> commentator here implying for the paramArtha jnAni there is no Ishwara and
> he is mere mental product during ajnAna period and a big zero !!??  Kindly
> note shankara bhagavatpAda is NOT a dry logician he is a saint par
> excellence.  By the way how MS treated all these statements being himself a
> great Krishna bhakta??
>

These verses are best understood in drishTi-srishTi-vAda framework. I can
understand the difficulty to appreciate these shlOkAs if one ascribes
reality to jIva, jagat and Ishwara.


>  Buddhisam / vijnAnavAda at its best here.  If the entire world is mere
> mental construction of an ajnAni, then more than half of the shruti
> verdicts should be thrown out of window as useless and it is talking
> nonsense.  Atleast  vyAkhyAnakAra here could have given the room to think
> about world differently based on adhikAra bedha…It seems he is not doing
> it.
>

VijnAnavAda does have certain things in common with advaita vedAnta, and
that has been stated in so many words by AchArya - ‘प्रज्ञप्तेः
सनिमित्तत्वम्’ (मा. का. ४ । २५) इत्यादि एतदन्तं विज्ञानवादिनो बौद्धस्य
वचनं *बाह्यार्थवादिपक्षप्रतिषेधपरम्
आचार्येणानुमोदितम्* ।

Basically bAhya-artha-pratishedha (negation of external objects) is common
to advaita and vijnAnavAda. However, advaita accepts Brahman/Self as real
substratum of illusory appearance. And here it distinguishes itself from
vijnAnavAda.

Whether it is Shruti, Smriti or bhAshya, you will get statements advocating
pariNAma, vivarta (SDV as  well as DSV) and ajAti. They are sequential
depending on adhikAra-bheda.



>
>    - Not so, bhAshyakAra clarifies this by using the same analogy
>    (rajju-sarpa) in chAndOgya.
>
>
>
>    - Shankara’s Advaita is NOT bhrAntivAda.
>
>
Inactive singular Brahman cannot accommodate activity without accepting
illusion.


 So omniscience of Ishwara / guru, guru as a person etc.is  just my
> conditioned mind’s imagination and I know that treating my guru as an
> omniscient is just my imagination / a product of ajnAna 😊
>
>
>
>  Why we should not think that the above statement / (wrong) conclusion is
> just another stretch of my imagination !!??  do you have any valid reason
> to give any reality to this statement ??
>
>
>
Again how you are giving any validity to these statements when each and
> every thing is just your conditioned mental construction??
>
>
>
> In the imaginary world, imaginary person called Sri SudhAnsnu singing the
> song of imaginary vyAkhyAnakAra’s shloka-s and asking his imaginary
> world/listeners  to listen to it 😊 No offence is intended but this is
> what you get when shankara’s parishuddha Advaita projected in the light of
> imaginary Ishwara/guru/world  😊
>

All such doubts stand answered in accordance with dream-analogy. Just as in
the dream one thinks of omniscient Ishwara as having created the world, and
Guru as imparting vidyA etc, similarly now.

BhAshyakAra proves it - जाग्रद्दृश्यानां भावानां वैतथ्यमिति प्रतिज्ञा ।
दृश्यत्वादिति हेतुः । स्वप्नदृश्यभाववदिति दृष्टान्तः । यथा तत्र स्वप्ने
दृश्यानां भावानां वैतथ्यम् , तथा जागरितेऽपि दृश्यत्वमविशिष्टमिति हेतूपनयः ।
तस्माज्जागरितेऽपि वैतथ्यं स्मृतमिति निगमनम् ।

SiddhAnta Lesha Sangraha clinches it - अत्र च
सम्भावितसकलशङ्कापङ्कप्रक्षालनं स्वप्नदृष्टान्तसलिलधारयैव कर्तव्यम्.

Regards.
Sudhanshu Shekhar.