[Advaita-l] Dvaita need not be revealed by the Shruti

[Jaishankar Narayanan]

Namaste,

I was reading the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad Bhashya for Poornam adah Poornam
idam shAntipAtha at the beginning of the fifth chapter. There Bhashyakara
says the below which reminded me of Murari, the Barber's story, which my
Guru Pujya Swami Dayananda ji used to narrate so hilariously.

The story goes like this - There was an advaita guru in a village and a
student came to study vedanta with him. He could not accept advaita
siddhanta and left this Guru to study Vedanta with others. He studied
Dvaita Vedanta for 12 years and then came back one day to debate with the
Advaita Guru. The Advaita Guru asked him to wait as he was about to get a
shaving from Murari, the barber. Murari was the local barber from the same
village and he did a good job of shaving the Guru. After the shaving was
done the Advaita Guru fell at the feet of Murari the barber exclaiming 'You
are not merely Murari the barber but you are really Murari, the Lord
Narayana himself, as you have made me tejsavi with your shaving'. Murari
was mortified by what the Advaita Guru did and said that he is merely a
barber and he can never be the Lord Narayana. The Advaita Guru then turned
toward his former disciple and said 'what Murari knows without studying any
shastra, you have known after studying the shastra for 12 years - how
great!' :-)

Now let us see what bhashyakAra says

न च उपदेशार्हं द्वैतम् , जातमात्रप्राणिबुद्धिगम्यत्वात् ; न च द्वैतस्य
अनृतत्वबुद्धिः प्रथममेव कस्यचित् स्यात् , येन द्वैतस्य सत्यत्वमुपदिश्य
पश्चात् आत्मनः प्रामाण्यं प्रतिपादयेत् शास्त्रम् ।

na ca upadeśārhaṃ dvaitam , jātamātraprāṇibuddhigamyatvāt ; na ca dvaitasya
anṛtatvabuddhiḥ prathamameva kasyacit syāt , yena dvaitasya
satyatvamupadiśya paścāt ātmanaḥ prāmāṇyaṃ pratipādayet śāstram ।

Swami Madhavananda's Translation

Nor does duality require to be taught; it is understood by everyone as Soon
as he is born; and nobody thinks from the very outset that duality is
false, in which case the scriptures would first have to teach the reality
of the dual world and then establish their own validity.

with love and prayers,
Jaishankar