[Advaita-l] Nirguna Brahman itself appears as Saguna - Srimad Bhagavatam

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Sat Aug 27 06:41:59 EDT 2022


At the very beginning the Bhagavatam describes the true nature of Brahman:

श्रीमद्भागवतपुराणम्/स्कन्धः १/अध्यायः २
https://sa.wikisource.org/s/e2o

स एवेदं ससर्जाग्रे भगवान् आत्ममायया ।
सद् असद् रूपया चासौ गुणमय्यागुणो विभुः ॥ ३० ॥
तया विलसितेष्वेषु गुणेषु गुणवानिव ।
अन्तःप्रविष्ट आभाति विज्ञानेन विजृम्भितः ॥ ३१ ॥

Brahma nis able to create the world only by depending on the three
qualities (sattva, etc.) of Maya. Brahman cannot create without this
dependence. Krishna has said this in many sentences in Bhagavad Gita.

Here in the Bhagavatam, it is clearly stated that Brahman, though in
reality nirguna (a-guna), appears as saguna (gunavan iva) by virtue of the
qualities of maya. Here we can know that the innumerable qualities of
Parabrahman are all derived from Maya.

When we try to know Brahman without relation to the creation, it becomes
clear that Brahman is a really devoid of without qualities, gunas. Srimad
Bhagavatam teaches us this very important Vedanta premise right at the
beginning.
Om


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