[Advaita-l] dRShTi-sRShTi definitions in the advaitasiddhi

H S Chandramouli hschandramouli at gmail.com
Wed Aug 16 03:46:01 EDT 2017


>
> Creation in Bhamati.
>
>
>
> The following is a citation from the book The Bhamati-Chatussutri edited
> by Prof Suryanarayana Shastri and Dr, Kunhan Raja. The book can be accessed
> at the following link  <<
> https://archive.org/details/TheBhamatiCatussutriBySSSuryanarayanaSastriAndCKunhanRaja
> >>
>
>
>
> Introduction  pp 35-37   Quote << Each jIva would appear to be the
> creator of his world, through and out of his nescience abiding in him ; the
> world is sustained by his nescience, and is destroyed with its destruction.
> The true creator, sustainer, and destroyer would thus appear to be the jIva
> himself. If the world be considered to be created by a God, that could be
> no more than an illusion, on a par with the world-illusion itself. The
> Creator and His Creatorship would both be figments of the creature’s
> imagination. The jIva is enthroned on high and God apparently reduced to
> nothing. But such a conclusion can hardly be consistent with the true trend
> of advaita. It is true that for this system even Isvara is not ultimate ;
> endow Him as we may with the utmost knowledge and power, He still falls
> short of perfection, since the Perfect is beyond all attributes ; greatness
> is significant only in relation to smallness, while the Absolute is neither
> great nor small and is above relative predications. All this, however,  is
> very different from the position that Isvara is a figment of the jIva’s
> nescience. >>
>
>
>
> << The truth of the matter seems to be this. Ignorance is bipolar. It is
> located somewhere, ie, it belongs to someone ; and it has a content. Though
> the jIva is the locus, the content is Isvara. When ordinarily we use the
> possessive pronoun ‘ mine ‘ or ‘ his ‘, we imply in the person capacity to
> control what is referred to. Not so in he case of Ignorance ; I mean by “
> my ignorance “ the ignorance that is in me, not the ignorance that I can
> control. The control of avidya belongs not to me with my limited powers of
> knowing and acting, but to the omniscient and omnipresent Being. Isvara too
> may be said to be the Ashraya of ignorance, if by Ashraya is meant the
> content but not its locus (Adhara).  When, therefore, it is said that my
> ignorance creates the universe, it does not follow that I create the
> universe ; rather does it mean that Isvara, the content f my ignorance,
> uses the ignorance hat is in me and out of that as material cause, evolves
> the world ; the ignorance in me, the mayA, the prakriti is the primal
> material cause ; he who wields it for fashioning the world, the mAyin, the
> arch-juggler, is Isvara. >>    Unquote
>
>
>
> The authors have this to say in the footnote to this portion
>
>
>
> Quote  << We are indebted to MM Prof S Kuppuswami  SAstriyAr  for
> considerable help in understanding this part of the doctrine >>.  Unquote
>
>
>
> Regards
>

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