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V.Krishnaraj
Tirumular says:
●The potter who mounts the clay on the potter’s wheel makes shapes
which fancy his mind. Like the potter, our Lord Nandi shapes the world
in every which way he wants.
Siddhantists say that Maya is the clay (material cause, upadana
karana), Sakti is the potter’s wheel (instrumental cause, Sahakari
karana), and God (the efficient cause, nimitta karana) is the maker
of world and beings.
Saivites say, Siva does not create this universe out of nothing. He is
the instrumental or efficient cause (Nimitta Karana); his sakti is the
cooperating cause (Sahakari Karana); Maya is the material cause
(Upadana Karana). The body and the organs with their functions are
evolutes of Maya and its Tattvas. He is also Akarana, meaning that
there is no cause other than Him.
Arjuna sees with shock and awe the destructive power of the Lord in
his Universal form.
11.24: On seeing, You glow in many colors and touch the sky with
wide-open mouth and large lustrous eyes, my soul deep inside shakes
in fear. I find neither support nor tranquility, O Vishnu.
11.25: On seeing your formidable teeth, your faces, the Time's (all-
consuming) fires, I know not my sense of direction and find no refuge.
Give me grace, O Lord of Gods and the Refuge of the Universe.
11.27: are rushing and entering your fearful (mouths) with formidable
teeth. Some of them are caught between (your) teeth with heads
crushed (to a pulp).
11.29: Moths enter a blazing fire at full speed for destruction, and
similarly, all people enter your mouths at full speed for their
destruction.
11.30: As you devour all people from all directions by Your flaming
mouths, You are licking. Your terrible radiance filling the whole world is
scorching it, O Vishnu.
11.31: Tell me, who are You with a terrible form? Salutations to You, O
Supreme God, have mercy. I wish to know You, the primal One, for I do
not know your activity.
11.32: Sri Bhagavan said:
I am Time, the great destroyer of the world and the people. Even
without your active engagement or participation, all these warriors in
the opposing armies will cease to exist.
This sutra gives two possible meanings: 1. (Brahman) the cause of the
sacred scripture, 2. Scripture (says that Brahman) is the cause. In the
first interpretation, Brahman is the cause or source of revelation of
scriptures; in the second, it means that Sacred scriptures say that
Brahman is the cause or creator of the world. Both statements say that
Brahman is the cause of the world. It is said that Brahman revealed the
Sastras, which say that the Brahman created this world. Sastras are
the intermediary messengers between Brahman and the world.
According to Sastras, Brahman was the revealer and not the formulator
of Sastras, meaning they existed even before Isvara. No one knows
who formulated the Sastras; they are like the natural phenomena like
magnetism, gravity and so on and so forth. Sastras came out of Isvara
like the exhalation of breath. Isvara brings them out at each Kalpa, as
they existed in previous Kalpa.
Brahman satisfies all six criteria and possibly more that a human
hasn't thought of. Criterion 3: He is incomparable; He is second to
none. Thus, apprehension of Brahman through rituals and logical earth-
bound reasoning is impossible. Different religions seem to
compartmentalize man in to several disparate groups. At the time
Brahma Sutra was written, there were many disparate doctrines. To
bring them all together and finding a common ground is reconciliation
(Samanvaya). This is true today as it was eons ago. Brahman here is a
generic name for the Force we are trying to understand; some call it
God. He is the Centripetal Point, towards which all religions and their
people march in search of him. They call Him by different names. God
is one, His names are many; many are the paths to reach Him; one is
no better than the next one. Different seers, prophets, and messiahs
individually take them to God by whatever route he has laid out for his
people. Thus, there is no one road, but only one God. That is
Samanvaya. People jumping from one road to another road in the act
of conversion hoping they will get to the Centripetal Point faster is a
questionable notion.
Hinduism contains in it the de facto basis of all religions; it is the
confluence of all religions and yet recognizes the importance of each
religion. To be a Hindu is to be a Christian, a Muslim, a Jew.... It
encompasses religious principles of all religions. Hinduism is a rainbow
of all religions.
Diversity is built into every aspect of humanity. In olden days, the
Seers, the Rishis, the Sadhus, the Prophets and Messiahs thought of
the universal nature of God and yet were pressured by local politics.
Every one of them thought his was the right path. India was the
cauldron of many faiths and beliefs from time immemorial; there was
tension among and between groups; they had to find a common
ground, tolerant of each other. Accommodation and absorption of
various faiths in to one unifying faith resulted in Sanatana Dharma
(eternal order), the proper name for Hinduism. Hinduism became one
religion that accommodates and contains all religions and their
precepts under one umbrella; thus, Hinduism contains all ennobling
features and ideals that other religions advance. And yet some ugly
excrescences (to use the words of Gandhi) grew on its body such as
caste system, which though outlawed by the constitution is still
practiced to this day. It is the merciless upper class suppressing the
Dalits for their own advantage in education, jobs, and home and land
ownership. Some Hindu religious leaders still maintain the so-called
Varnasrama Dharma and want to keep each caste in its own tight
compartment, so that the upper class stays on the top and the lower
class stays in the bottom. This they call, by an oxymoron, Dharma,
meaning justice. Recently (5/2006) students of higher (medical)
education protested against Government's decision to continue to
admit lower caste students on a quota basis. No one knows where
justice and equality stand in their dispute with the Government. The
lower castes were the neglected bunch until independence; since then,
they received preferential treatment for admission into medical
colleges on a quota basis. The protesting higher caste students with
the backing of parents and medical association question the
Government's decision to continue the preferential treatment. The
lower castes question the validity of the protest for they were the
suppressed class for thousands of years; a few decades of preferential
treatment will not set things right, according to their claim.
Sati, the old practice of death of the wife in the funeral pyre of her
deceased husband was banned for ever by the British during the the
Governor-Generalship of Lord William Bentinck (1825-1835) under the
moral influence of Ram Mohan Roy. . Thank you, Brits! Animal sacrifice
still continues, though less than before. Human sacrifices were not
unheard of in the ages past. Another blot on the Indian psyche is the
bride-burning which the groom and his family perpetrate on the bride
for having not brought hoards of riches (dowry). The revival of
Hinduism owes its thanks to the Acharyas, Alwars, and Nayanars, who
brought the converted Hindus back to their fold from Jainism and
Buddhism, which have excellent credentials to stand on their own
merit.
Pradhana and the Self are not the same; they are not equipotent.
Seeing induces thought which along with Will and Knowledge induces
Action. Upanishads do not mention that Pradhana (matter) is the cause
of the universe. Pradhana is not the one that takes the individual soul
to salvation. All Upanishads concur on Brahman as the origin of the
universe and beings and the source of revealed wisdom.
This is called Iccha, Jnana and Kriya (Will, Knowledge, and Action) by
Saiva Siddhantists; Isvara exercises these three faculties for the act of
creation. Matter cannot arise on its own, incorporate itself with a soul,
later embody the soul and lastly give life to the embodied soul. All this
is done by a perceiving God.
Ramanuja advances the theory of Isvara, Cit and Acit as the triad.
Isvara, the clinical Brahman, Saguna Brahman, or Maya Brahman who
has as its body Cit (sentient beings) and Acit (the non-sentient beings
and matter). Saivites advance the view that Siva and Sakti, being
Brahman, are both players in the creation of the universe and Siva acts
through Sakti who employs Maya to produce 36 Tattvas to create
souls, beings, and matter.
1.1.8 heyatvaavacanaac ca
1.1.9 svaapayayaat
sva = the Self, atman. apyayaat = on account of entering,
merging or vanishing
On account of the individual self entering the Great Self
(during deep sleep) or on account of self entering into its own
Self.
1.1.10 gati-saamaanyaat
1.1.11 srutatvaac ca
1.1.16 netraro'nupapatteh
Purport:
1.1.17: bheda-vyapadesaac ca
Purport:
asmin: in him asya: his ca: and tad; that yogam: union;
saasti= teaches.
Sacred Text teaches the yoga (union) of the individual soul with
THAT (Bliss of Self).
When the individual soul obtains Brahma Vidya, it merges with the
Self of Bliss. Brahma vidya is not mundane knowledge of the world but
spiritual knowledge: you are the self and not the body. This union is
Turiya and Turiyatita.
The golden person in the sun and the person within the eye
are the Supreme Brahman. it is said that the divine resides in
the sun and the eye. The divine person in the sun is called Ut
and the one in the eye, Saaman or Rk. Sankara is of the view
that the golden person in the sun is the Saguna Brahman, aka
God, the object of worship and meditation. Brahman can
assume any form to please and grant bliss to his devotees.
Srikantha is of the opinion that the golden person inside the
sun is Siva and his two eyes are the sun and the moon. His
third eye stays closed.
He dwells in the sun and is inside the sun and yet the sun
knows him not; He is the body of the sun, controlling him (the
sun) from inside. He is your Self, the immortal and the inner
controller. Brhd-aranyaka Upanishad III.7.9.
The indwelling Great Self that resides, rules, and controls every
being is different from the individual soul, the body of the sun
and all beings. end.
ata eva praanah ata eva: for the same reason; praanah:
breath (life is Brahman.)
chandah: meter (Gayatri); abhidhaanaat: spoken of; na: not; iti: so;
cet: if; na: no; tathaa: this; cetah: mind; arpana: offering,
fixing; nigadaat: having been declared tathaa: this; hi:also;
darsanam: being looked at.
Gayatri and Brahman have four feet or quarters. To fix the mind on
Brahman, the meter is used.
The speaker; the smeller; the seer; the hearer; the taster; the doer;
the discerner of pleasure and pain; discerner of bliss, delight, and
procreation; the mover; the minder (thinker): these are the ten
elements of an Intelligent Self. Without them there is no existence.
One should know the performer of these action more than the objects.
(There are four parts in this equation: the enjoyer, the sensory organ,
the object of the organ or enjoyment, the sense enjoyed. Indra is the
enjoyer; eye is the sense organ; flower is the object of enjoyment;
visual delight experienced by the brain is the sense.) The elements of
the Intelligent Self is compared to a felly, spokes and the hub. The
spokes radiate from the hub to the felly. Existence is the felly; the
spokes are the elements of intelligence and the hub is the breathing
spirit or Prana, which is, truly, the Intelligent Self and Bliss, ageless and
immortal. "I am that Intelligent Self; I am the hub." He (Indra) speaks in
third person singular as follows. He is the Mover who leads people to
good action or bad action. He is the Protector, the sovereign, and the
Lord of the world; He is Myself; this all must know. This is the Universal
Self, whose microcosmic version is man. Thus, Isvara is the origin of
man and matter.
The covenant
1.1.30
Let me tell you a humorous story to illustrate this point. There once
was a professor and his driver who always went together to all
lectures. This went on many times and the driver was always in the
audience. When the professor became ill, he asked his driver to deliver
the lecture. The audience didn't know the switch because they knew
not the appearance of both. The driver delivered the lecture with ease
and aplomb. The driver (Indra or the soul) had the knowledge and thus
became the professor (Brahman) by his sheer knowledge.
1.1.31.
tad-yogAt.
Purport: Individual soul has special marks and chief breath. If it is said
that Brahman is not alluded to by the same qualities of the soul, we
object to that interpretation, which demands performance of threefold
worship. Brahman, according to sacred texts, is Breath.
Section 1 (1-8)
All this is Brahman, who is the beginning, the middle and the end. One
should worship Him with tranquillity. Purpose makes a man. Purpose
stays with him on his departure from this world. (Man is thought, word
and deed, which determine his after-life and next life.) Brahman is
mind; His body is life-breath; He is Light-form; He is Truth; His Atma is
space; He contains all desires, all odors, and all tastes; He is all this--
the world; He is without speech, concern, torment or pain.
The individual soul says: I encompass all acts, all desires, all odors, all
tastes, and all worlds without speech, care or concern; my self abides
in the heart. That is Brahman, with whom I merge on leaving hence.
Thus said Sandilya, who pronounces that the individual soul and
Brahman are one. SAndilya says beings and matter come from
Brahman, by whom the beings live and into whom they repose. What
happens in our next life depends on karma of this life. The Great Soul
(Atman) is immanent and transcendent. The end of man's journey is
merger with the Self.
1.2.2. vivaksita-gunopapattes ca
Chaandogya Upanishad (VIII.7.1) says, " The atma is free from paapam
(demerit), old age, death, grief, hunger, thirst... His desire and thought
are real. He is worthy of seeking and knowing. Such seeker
understands the self, and enjoys all worlds and desires.
The Greater Self is present in the spiritual heart of every living being.
Therefore, it appears divided, but not actually divided. It is like the
luminous sun and its many reflections in the water; it is like one space
with many jars of space. Similarly, One Brahman appears as many in
all beings and as One in each being. The Brahman is like the sun and
each one of us is like a little mirror reflecting the image of the sun:
Brahman is One and undivided, but appears divided. God, Brahman, or
Self is like the oil in the sesamum seeds, water in the dry riverbeds,
latent fire in the friction sticks and wood, fragrance in the flower, and
gold in the reef of gold.
The embodied individual soul fails to meet the criteria and thus is not
Brahman. Mind (manomaya) and such are applicable only to Brahman.
1.2.4. karma-kartr-vyapadesaac ca
Srikantha is of the opinion that the seeker is Narayana and the object
of worship is Siva. Srikantha seems to suggest that Siva is the object
of worship of Narayana, lesser gods, and men. it is the exact opposite
of the view of Ramanuja.
1.2.5. sabda-visesaat
1.2.6. smrtes ca
Sankara is of the opinion that Brahman is vast like the space, unlimited
in its scope. We the individual souls are like jars with a limitation of
space. When (we die or) the jar breaks, that limited space becomes
part of the big space. We are born with limitations, while Brahman is
unlimited; we part of the unlimited space.
In Bhagavadgita 18.61 (part of the Smrti texts), Bhagavan declares the following: The
Supreme Lord resides within the hearts of all living beings, O Arjuna. By His māyā
power, Isvara causes all beings to spin as if they are mounted on a machine (carousel or
upright wheel).
Hrt-dese: within the hearts. Brahman resides in the hearts of all individuals.
According to Chāndogya Upanishad 8.1- 6, in the city of Brahman, there is an abode
called a small lotus flower (heart). There is a small space within that heart. The question
arises in the mind: What is there to seek or what is there to understand? In that space,
there is heaven and earth, fire and air, sun and moon, lightning and stars. Whatever there
is of Him in this world and beyond is contained within the heart. What is left behind in
the space of the heart (hrd-ākāsa), when death strikes? It is the Self that remains, free
from sin, old age, death, sorrow, hunger, and thirst. Desire and thought of the Self is after
the Real. Once merits and demerits have resolved upon death, liberation is obtained only
when the desire of Self is realized. Sankara interprets the vision and the goal of the self:
Seeing the Self in all and all in the Self, the self becomes autonomous and liberated.
The Māyā power, owned by the Lord, has three dissimilar sons: Sattva, Rajas, and
Tamas. It is Rajas who spins the wheel of creation, it is Sattva that sustains it, and it is
Tamas who brings it to dissolution. This Maya power works at Cosmic level.
Here wheel allegorizes the sheaths of the body, according to Panchadasi (6.173-
176). Spinning denotes good and bad deeds by the individual. At individual level, Maya
power works with the Intellectual sheath and prompts Jiva to act. This does not preclude
self-motivation of an individual.
Ramanuja is of the opinion that Lord Vasudeva rules us and lives in our (spiritual)
heart, the origin of all secular and spiritual activities. He uses His Maya power, and
mounts us on the Prakrti machine in the form of body, organs, and senses created by
Him, which act according to Sattva, Rajas and Tamas (virtue, passion and darkness).
Everything proceeds from Me. I am the potter, the clay, the machine, and the tools. The
individual soul and body are the clay mounted on the machine. I provide the memory, the
knowledge and its removal.