[Advaita-l] Ishwara Turiya?

[V Subrahmanian]

On Thu, Mar 8, 2012 at 1:19 PM, <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

> I was discussing with Sri Devanathan yesterday. He asserted that Ishwara
> is turiya. How can two scholars trained in the same school and even mutt
> differ on a basic point? It baffles me.
>

It baffles me too :)

Ishwara is the tattva which is within the realm of Maya.  In fact Ishwara
is mAyopAdhikaH (maayinam tu maheshwaram).  All the created world is
related to and within Ishwara.  Beyond even Ishwara is the Turiya with no
connection with mAyA whatsoever.  The seventh mantra of the Mandukya
Upanishad is the one on the Turiya.  Here by the several words such as
prapanchopashamam etc. the Upanishad negates the entire creation along with
Ishwara and shows the Absolute Truth and teaches that the knowledge of this
Absolute is essential for liberation.  Ishwara is within relativity and
Turiya is beyond.

There is no point in taking this up for further discussion.  Our archives
will have a lot of posts on this topic which could be read.  I would
suggest that a patient hearing of the CDs containing lectures in English by
Swami Paramarthananda on the Mandukya Upanishad with the Gaudapada
kArikaa-s spanning over 80 hours so as to get a crystal clear understanding
of the Advaita vedanta in all its several important aspects.  This exercise
of at least one hour listening per day will be found to be worth it.

subrahmanian.v