[Advaita-l] [advaitin] rAma-krishna-shiva-durga etc. are not same in shAstric vyavahAra!!!

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Bhaskar ji,

On Tue, 7 Feb 2023, 10:23 'Bhaskar YR' via advaitin, <
advaitin at googlegroups.com> wrote:

>
>
>    - I am not talking about temporary posts that would be earned through
>    puNya  by ‘some’ jeeva-s, but I am asking about the declaration of ‘they
>    are ULTIMATELY jeeva-s.  Is there any concept in Advaita that would tell us
>    about the ultimate existence of ‘some’ jeeva-s apart from one Chaitanya??
>
> I think you are putting more emphasis on the word "ultimately" than was
intended by me. I didn't use the phrase "they are ultimately jIvas" to mean
their paramArtha astitva is as jIva-s. I only meant that they are only
jIva-s in vyavahAra, they are not Ishvara.


>    - If it is argued that one Chaitanya is from the paramArtha view point
>    and multiple jeeva-s exisence is in vyavahAra then we have to accept that
>    bheda vyavahAra is quite valid and deva-devata bheda too valid in shAstra
>    vyavahAra drushti.
>
> Yes, I didn't deny that.


>    - So what exactly we are defending and arguing in shiva-vishNu
>    abheda??
>
>
Just because we accept there is jIveshvara bheda and jIva-jIva bheda in
vyavahAra, why should we accept  bheda between one form of Ishvara and
another form of Ishvara in *all* respects? The bheda between Shiva and
Vishnu that we are willing to accept is only in their name, form, pUja
vidhi, mantras etc. We do not accept any bheda in their status as Ishvara.

In fact, if we accept bheda between two forms of Ishvara in all respects in
vyavahAra then it is as good as saying there are two Ishvara-s, which would
be absurd. But to avoid that we do not have to admit there is atyanta
abheda between two forms of Ishvara in vyavahAra either. Nor do we have to
say only one of the two is Ishvara either, as vishiShTAdvaita / dvaita say.

We instead say both Shiva and Vishnu are Ishvara only, they have just taken
different names and forms for our benefit.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

>