[Advaita-l] ChidAbhAsa and Ishvara

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Fri Aug 5 01:52:35 CDT 2011


Sriram ji,

Your explanation, based on the vAsudeva mananam, is no doubt fine and the
shabda-vyutpatti for चिदाभासः is also undoubtedly correct.  However, that
word offers other possibilities too:

The आभासः reflection of चित् Consciousness (चिदः आभासः प्रतिबिम्बः
चिदाभासः). With this vyutpatti we can, without flaw, say that the samaShThi
shareeraabhimAni has/is chidAbhAsaH.  The Apte dictionary gives this as one
of the meanings for the word आभासः - A reflection: 'तत्र अज्ञानं धिया
नश्येत् आभासात्तु घटः स्फुरेत् ('vedantasAraH').  (Here I think the
prakriyaa for the perception arising from seeing a pot is discussed. )

For example, in the Taittiriya Upanishad 'Ananda mImAmsA' portion,
prajApati's Ananda is termed as only relative.  That means there is an
antaHkaraNa or some such upAdhi which reflects the upahita Ananda to that
extent.  We should note that his knowledge is not questioned here but only
the reflecting medium he possesses is stated/posited.  In this way we can
say that even for Ishwara there is the मायोपाधिः (as contrasted with the
अन्तःकरणोपाधिः of the jiva) where the vishuddhA chit gets reflected.  It is
certainly not a paricchinnopAdhiH for Ishwara who is well regarded as
sarvajna, sarveshvaraH.  Yet it is an upAdhi in the sense that such a
sarvajnatv/sarveshvaratva is dependent upon/relative to the 'sarva'
consisting of all the jiva-s and the jagat.  In turIya, even this sarva is
absent. And that is why for moksha this jnanam is required.

Says the shukarahasyopaniShat:

कार्योपाधिरयं जीवः कारणोपाधिरीश्वरः The jiva is the one endowed with the
kAryopaadhi that is the body-mind complex and Ishwara is the one endowed
with the kAraNopaadhi that is mAyA.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v


On Fri, Aug 5, 2011 at 11:13 AM, Venkata sriram P
<venkatasriramp at yahoo.in>wrote:

> Namaste,
>
> //
> cidAbhAsaH is relevant at the samashTi level or not.
>
> /
>
> Shri Vasudevananda Saraswati denies the chidAbhAsa tattva at samasShTi
> level.
>
> chidAbhAsa lakShaNa leads to adhyAsa-tAdAtmya & chit-jaDa granthi which is
> the avidyA lakShaNa of Jiva.
>
> Moroever, as discussed earlier, AbhAsa means "IShat bhAsamana lakShaNa"
> ie., the luminosity of Chit gets "diminished" which leads to "kinchit"
> lakShaNa in Jiva.
>
> At samaShTi level, there is no "kinchit" lakShaNa.
>
> regs,
> sriram
>



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