[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Dvaita need not be revealed by the Shruti

[Balagopal Ramakrishnan]

👌

On Mon, 3 Nov, 2025, 18:40 Jaishankar Narayanan, <jai1971 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> I was reading the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad Bhashya for Poornam adah Poornam
> idam shAntipAtha at the beginning of the fifth chapter. There Bhashyakara
> says the below which reminded me of Murari, the Barber's story, which my
> Guru Pujya Swami Dayananda ji used to narrate so hilariously.
>
> The story goes like this - There was an advaita guru in a village and a
> student came to study vedanta with him. He could not accept advaita
> siddhanta and left this Guru to study Vedanta with others. He studied
> Dvaita Vedanta for 12 years and then came back one day to debate with the
> Advaita Guru. The Advaita Guru asked him to wait as he was about to get a
> shaving from Murari, the barber. Murari was the local barber from the same
> village and he did a good job of shaving the Guru. After the shaving was
> done the Advaita Guru fell at the feet of Murari the barber exclaiming 'You
> are not merely Murari the barber but you are really Murari, the Lord
> Narayana himself, as you have made me tejsavi with your shaving'. Murari
> was mortified by what the Advaita Guru did and said that he is merely a
> barber and he can never be the Lord Narayana. The Advaita Guru then turned
> toward his former disciple and said 'what Murari knows without studying any
> shastra, you have known after studying the shastra for 12 years - how
> great!' :-)
>
> Now let us see what bhashyakAra says
>
> न च उपदेशार्हं द्वैतम् , जातमात्रप्राणिबुद्धिगम्यत्वात् ; न च द्वैतस्य
> अनृतत्वबुद्धिः प्रथममेव कस्यचित् स्यात् , येन द्वैतस्य सत्यत्वमुपदिश्य
> पश्चात् आत्मनः प्रामाण्यं प्रतिपादयेत् शास्त्रम् ।
>
> na ca upadeśārhaṃ dvaitam , jātamātraprāṇibuddhigamyatvāt ; na ca
> dvaitasya anṛtatvabuddhiḥ prathamameva kasyacit syāt , yena dvaitasya
> satyatvamupadiśya paścāt ātmanaḥ prāmāṇyaṃ pratipādayet śāstram ।
>
> Swami Madhavananda's Translation
>
> Nor does duality require to be taught; it is understood by everyone as
> Soon as he is born; and nobody thinks from the very outset that duality is
> false, in which case the scriptures would first have to teach the reality
> of the dual world and then establish their own validity.
>
> with love and prayers,
> Jaishankar
>
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