[Advaita-l] Fwd: Brahman is the Upadana (material) cause as well of the world - Srimad Bhagavatam

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Fri Oct 28 02:02:41 EDT 2022


On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 8:57 AM V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 8:43 AM Kaushik Chevendra <
> chevendrakaushik at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>>
>>>
>>> If this Vasudeva Narayana Brahman is different from any other, then it is
>>> subject to the defect of 'limitation by object' (vastu-pariccheda) and
>>> does
>>> not deserve to be called Parabrahman. Because the absence of Brahman is
>>> in
>>> the other and the absence of the other is in Brahman (anyonyaabhava),
>>> Brahman remains limited, a-purna.
>>>
>> The general answer given by the dualists is that like space pervades all
>> objects it is never the object itself. And any modifications and
>> limitations of objects doesn't affect the space itself.
>> At the same time no object can exist without space, but space remains
>> independent of the object.
>>
>
> We already know this. But that does not take away the objection of the
> 'abhava' of the world in Brahman and vice versa as in the chair is not a
> table and vice versa. We call a chair not a table only because the table is
> not 'in' the entity called chair and vice versa. That mutual absence,
> anyonya abhava, between the two which signifies bheda, difference, between
> the two can't be overcome. In Advaita the entire world is non-different
> from Brahman, being superimposed in Brahman and hence no bheda. Just like
> the superimposed snake is not counted as a second, different from the
> substratum rope.
>
> Even with respect to Akasha, there is the vastu paricchinna dosha since we
> count vayu, agni, etc. as *different* from akasha even though the rest
> are all pervaded by, existing in, Akasha. Shankara has said this in the
> Taittiriya bhashya on Satyam, Jnanam Anantam Brahma, while discussing
> ananta, infinite.  Akasha is thus not infinite in this sense; it is still
> finite.
>

Moreover the Bhagavatam itself is negating the existence of any other
entity than Brahman, Vasudeva:

श्रीमद्भागवतपुराणम्/स्कन्धः २/अध्यायः ५
https://sa.wikisource.org/s/e2t

*द्रव्यं कर्म च कालश्च स्वभावो जीव एव च ।वासुदेवात्परो ब्रह्मन् न
चान्योऽर्थोऽस्ति तत्त्वतः ॥ १४ ॥*

Elsewhere the Bhagavatam has used multiple times the analogy of rope snake
with respect to the world.

>
> regards
> subbu
>
>>
>>>
>>>


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