[Advaita-l] Advaita-l Digest, Vol 2, Issue 29

Kotekal, Srinivas [Non-Employee/0200] srinivas.kotekal at pharmacia.com
Wed Jun 11 12:45:07 CDT 2003



Dear Sadananda-ji,

Thanks for your reply.

>Srinivas - there is no paramaatma-jada aikya - neither any
>paramaatma-jiiva aikya. Aikya implies two things joining.  Any dwaita is
>notional and that is what the teaching is.  Notions are due to adhyaasa.
> When Brahman is ekam eva advitiiyam - there cannot be anything other
>than Brahman. Brahman is sat and Brahman is chit and Brahman is ananda
>or ananta - There cannot be anything other than sat and anything other
>than chit and anything beyond limitless. Therefore sat has to be chit
>and chit has to be anantam.   Where is the question of jada here? If
>there is such a question, then that question itself is due to not
>knowing the facts - and that my friend is what is called ignorance and
>resulting effects of that ignorance is adhyaasa - it is as simple as
>that. 

If you read Shruti vAkya "ekam eva advitiiyam" as "there cannot be anything
other
than Brahman" ; then following fundamental question arises ;

If everything (you, me, this world and its contents including Vedas) is
Brahmn;  why do we (humans) should put time and effort to realize (by
shastrAdhyana or by Guru upadesha or anything related) that we are nothing
but Brahmn indeed ??????? For that matter, there is no concepts as I and you
and this world, everything is Brahmn, right ? If one (if such thing as 'one'
exist) does not realizes or do not put effort to realize, what happens ? Why
should we consider the  concepts of dharma,adharma, pApa, puNya etc ? For
what purpose did our rishis realized Vedic truth? or for whom ? For that
matter, why are we discussing in this internet forum ?! Why can't we let the
whole thing takes its course ? anyway every thing is Brahmn and let Him do
whatever He wants ? why bother all these things ? Let me (if there is such
thing as 'me') enjoy what ever is pleasurable right now.

Why can not it be like a dream. The whole dream and its objects including
yourself (as a role participating)  in a dream is illusory. Yet the whole
dream process is very real and happing in your (real you) mind. Thus
everything in the dream is nothing but you (just like Brahmn is everything).
So, do you, as an personality in the dream, aware of the nature of dream or
put any effort to know that it is just an dream and try to get out of it ?
The whole dream just flows and ends finally by external events like natural
awakening or alarm clock or Mom's wake-up call etc., right ? 

The point is, if you and me are really Brahmn, let the external agents (like
Brhamn's Mom if there exist one :) ) take care of the realization. Why we
bother now ? after all 'I' and 'you' are nothing but virtual casts in this
big dream !! Isn't it ?

Let us see how we can read this Shruti vAkya "ekam eva advitiiyam"
correctly.

"advitiiyam" is 'a' = "not or non" and 'dvitiyam' = "second".

The word "advitiiyam" is an adjective possessively related to the noun
"ekam" (Brahmn) and not a noun in opposition with Brahmn (i.e 'bahuvriti',
not a 'tatpurusa'). Thus, the statement is saying that "Brahmn *has* no
second" not "there cannot be anything other than Brahman". This indicates
that "there is no one second (equal) to Brahmn". But does it also imply "no
one inferior to Him" ?, hardly. Infact the very presence of this statement
clearly indicates existence of beings other than Brahmn. Otherwise, what is
the necessity of such statements ?

Regards,
Srinivas.













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