[Advaita-l] Shankara on non-Advaitic mokSha/Brahman

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Sun, Feb 24, 2013 at 5:54 PM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

>
> The question is: what will be the state of this jiva with self-knowledge
> after death? Will he continue as an individual or not?
>

RV: In GV, individuality of the jivatman is svarupa. It will never be lost.

>
> How long?  For the body-mind apparatus is perishable, no matter of what
> they have been made.  Certainly they cannot be made of Pure Consciousness;
> only prakRti can take shapes and sizes and attributes.
>

RV: In GV, the body made of visuddha sattva is non-different from brahman.
It differentiates between internal, marginal and external
potencies and links them to brahman through visesha. In advaita, one has to
say that the form of even Ishwara has to be acit. If it is acit, it has to
be cause of sorrow like any other form.  But where is the support for such
a position in sastras to say that rupa of Bhagavan is cause of sorrow?


> I do not understand how a leg of a chair can be different from a chair, for
> a chair is a chair only with all its constituent parts.
>

RV: A chair is made of head, back, seat, hands and legs arranged in a
particular configuration. If you point to any of the parts, you cannot say
it is chair. So, each part is different from the chair. The chairness of
the chair is also not lost by breaking a hand or a leg. For this reason
also, the chair is different from its individual parts. However, there is
no part of a chair that can exist without a chair because an adjective
cannot exist without qualifying a noun. They cannot exist outside the chair
because they are its parts, hence one with it. And the parts of a chair do
not limit a chair. Such is the relationship between brahman and jiva-jagat,
according GV.


If the shakti of the shaktimAn Brahman has produced the jiva-s that are
different from Him/It, then it goes without saying that the products of
Brahman are non-different from It even as clay products are non- different
from clay in truth.

RV: There is no creation or production of jiva in GV. It is a shakti of the
lord. As His shakti, it is inseparable from Him.

>
> I would be curious to know if bhedAbheda has been dealt with by Adi Sankara
> > or other Sankaracharyas.
> >
>
> I am aware of at least one instance, the Brahma sutra bhashya 2.1.14.  It
> is pretty long and hence I am not quoting it.  One can read it and get
> great benefit.  This concerns in part the bhedAbheda thinking and brings
> out the untenability of such a proposition.
>
>
RC: I will check it out. Thx.