[Advaita-l] THE ABSOLUTE

[Shrinivas Gadkari]

Namaste Shri Subrahmanian,

Wanted to clarify that the purpose of my post was to convey to
Shri Murthy that there can be different goals for a student of vedAnta.
And for the type of goal I have described, just understanding the 
para tattva may not be enough.

You are right that the solution to the question "how to make a rope 
appear as a garland of flowers, instead of a frightening snake", is
all over in the Vedic texts. Let us leave it at that and let each reader
find the answer for themselves with guidance of sad guru.

With regards,
Shrinivas Gadkari
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Dear Srinivas,

Your question below is full of meaning. The way I understand your question,
the solution is all over there in the Scriptural texts. All the teaching of
reducing rajas and tamas by increasing sattva is to enable the jiva to see
the world as the proverbial 'garland' of your quest.  The Jivanmukti viveka
of Swami Vidyaranya, for example, says that the first aim of the aspirant
is to eschew rajasic and tamasic tendencies by increasing sattvic ones. But
this is not the ultimate. For the realization of the Absolute, the
Paramarthika Tattva, Nirguna Brahman, even the sattva has to be given up by
Knowledge, Jnana, which is Vijnana here.

So, the answer to your question is there.  The sarvatra sattva drishTi
which could mean sarvatra Vishnu/Shiva/Devi drishti (in the saguna mode) is
first to be achieved. This is the teaching of the 10 and 11 th chapters of
the Gita: Vishvarupa darshana.  Beyond this is the Arupa darshana that is
what I said in the last sentence in the above paragraph.

Swami Paramarthananda puts it succinctly: From Ekarupa bhakti to Vishvarupa
Bhakti to Arupa bhakti/jnana.

warm regards
subbu