[Advaita-l] What is 'aprAkRta' ?

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Sat Jul 30 12:07:16 CDT 2011


2011/7/30 Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>

> On Fri, Jul 29, 2011 at 11:53 AM, V Subrahmanian
> <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:
>
> >
> > This is the clarification Anandagiri gives to the words of the bhashyam
> on
> > BG 8.9:
> >
> > 'एतदप्रमेयं ध्रुवं' इति श्रुतिमाश्रित्याह -- अचिन्त्यरूपमिति। नहि परस्य
> > किंचिदपि रूपादि वस्तुतोऽस्ति अरूपवदेव हीति न्यायात् कल्पितमपि
> नास्मदादिभिः
> > शक्यते चिन्तयितुमित्याह -- नास्येति।
> >
> > The *Brahmasutra bhashya reference given by Anandagiri is 3.2.14 and 15
> > which pl. read.  There Badarayana (and Shankara) confirms that Brahman
> has
> > no form.
> >
>
> RV: Thanks for the clarification. In BS 3.2.15  Sankara quotes 'He who is
> called ether is the revealer of all forms and names. That within which
> forms
> and names are, that is Brahman' (*Kh*. Up. VIII, 14, 1). How is this
> understood as Brahman is not a container of nescience or its effects?


Even though Brahman, in absolute terms, is not the container.....yet keeping
that in mind it would not be wrong to say that Brahman is the adhiShThAnam,
substratum, of all names and forms.  For there are no real objects that are
referred by names and forms; Brahman is the substance of all the 'objects'.
 In the Bh.G.9.4 and 5 we have the teaching: All beings are there in The
Lord.  Also, they are not there in the Lord.  This means, we have to give a
locus, a support, for the beings in the creation for they cannot be by
themselves, being paratantra.  They 'exist' on the sattaa borrowed from the
Swatantra, Brahman.  The Lord clarifies that they do not really exist in Him
meaning that they are only appearances in Him, with Him as the substratum.
 The superimposed serpent does not stick to the rope though it is only
because the rope is there one sees, by mistake, a serpent (something other
than the rope) there.  In this way we can account for names and forms being
'within' Brahman.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v


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