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

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

>
> .
>
>
> > Also, it is circular logic to say that brahman is referred to in this
> > mantra not Ishwara because our system says so. We have
> > to base the siddhanta on sastra not sastra on the siddhanta.
> >
>
> It is not as you think it to be.  It must be remembered that an email
> discussion is not a substitute for a committed study of the Advaita shAstra
> by taking up texts in a methodical way.  Sri Vidyasankar had hinted at this
> long ago.  You must remember that you cannot force your preconceived
> notions on Advaita/Upanishads and extract the meaning you desire out of
> them.  The Mandukya upanishad starts with the declaration 'All this is
> Brahman' and goes on to present the three states as the 'this' and finally
> negates them wholesale to show how all 'this' is Brahman, the turiya.  Thus
> the previous mantras and the seventh mantra are placed in an
> adhyAropa-apavAda relationship.  If this explanation of the bhAshyakAra is
> not convincing to you, you can form your own system and have a separate
> bhAShyam. People who carefully follow the shAnkara bhAShya discern a
> pattern in the entire literature - both bhAShya and the Upanishadic.  So,
> their conclusions are ever based on this pattern that is discernible to
> them.  In this exercise no attempt is made to snub one's curiosity or
> spirit of enquiry.  That is the reason I asked you to get to hearing the
> talk-series in a methodical manner.

RV: As you know, I am not opposed to any systematic study. On what basis is
a positive statement "auspicious" taken as negation of "inauspiciousness"?
Why don't the Upanishad negate "auspiciousness" instead to indicate that
Brahman is attributeless?