[Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma

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[Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma
V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com Wed Jul 21 20:10:40 CDT 2010 Previous message: [Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma Next message: [Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
On Thu, Jul 22, 2010 at 12:53 AM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan < svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote: > > > > > > > > > > >

Namaste Shrinivas, I meant to respond to this mail quite a few days ago, but got distracted with other things. To me it seems that the usage of akshara in gItA verse 15.16 is a special case, as it is only there that akshara purusha is identified with kUTastha. Almost all other usages of akshara in Sruti and smRti refer to parabrahman.

Namaste. Here is at least one usage of the word 'akshara' in the sense of an entity other than Parabrahman: The mantra of the Mundaka Upanishad 2.1.2: !"#$% &'()*+ ,-./+ .....0123)4 ,2)+ ,2+ 5 Here the word 'akshara' is used in the sense of: 'avyAkRta' the unmanifest. This 'avyAkRta' called in this mantra as 'aksharam' is itself higher in status compared to the 'kShara' that is the perishable nAma-rUpa that is 'vyAkRta', manifest world. The manifest world is subject to destruction in pralaya. Yet the unmanifest akshara that is the source of the manifest world does not get destroyed as it is the seed for the next creation. Parabrahman is taught in this mantra as the one that is superior even to this akshara: 0123)4 (,2)+) ,2+. So, aksharam is itself superior to the nAma-rUpa world and Parabrahman is greater than even this aksharam. This paragraph could even be skipped: //There is a good amount of discussion on the above in the Brahmasutra too. [The Sankhya wants to somehow show that the Upanishad admits of the PradhAna. He tries to show that this mantra has the word akshara to denote an entity that is similar to the Sankhya's pradhAna. And since the Purusha here is taught as superior to akshara, and as the Sankhya too holds the

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[Advaita-l] Anadimatparambrahma

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Purusha to be diffeent and superior to pradhana, why would not the Upanishad admit the pradhAna?] // The Gita15.16 usage of the word aksharam is not different from the above Mundaka usage. The commentary too is very consistent in both the places: the usage of the word 'beejam'. it is the seed containing the samskaras of the karma-s of jiva-s. Here too we get the information from the scripture that what constitutes the basic material for the creation of the manifest world is the samskara, born of the karma, of the jiva-s. Again, to just show the position of akshara of this context, the prAjna (deep sleep) (Ishvara) of the Mandukya Upanishad, the third pAda just preceding the Turiya, is corresponding to the akshara (kUTastha) of the Gita 15.16 and the above described Mundaka mantra. Praajna/Ishvara is the seed, therefore superior, to the earlier two pAdas- the vishva and taijasa (waking and dream constituting the manifest world of nama rupa) . And Turiya, the transcendental Truth, is superior even to Ishvara (kUTastha). Thus, the Gita 15.16 is a fine condensed edition of the entire scheme of the Mandukya Upanishad. The Mundaka mantra quoted above is also a brief re-stated version of the Mandukya scheme. An additional point: From the Bhashyam of the Mundaka Mantra quoted above we get another information: This akshara is also called 'AkAsha' in the (Brihadaranyaka - Gaargi context?) Upanishad. Shankaracharya writes: $67'87)"393:3;$'12< =<#$>?32!>/$'%)< @%)< A ... [The akshara also called AkAsha is present in the Supreme Brahman as wharp and whoof] With a view to give so many details I made the presentation a bit too lengthy. I hope the readers will pardon me. Regards, subrahmanian.v

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