Fw: Cause of Creation

[Vaidya Sundaram]

Namaskaram.
 I received this personal mail following the initial posts - I am forwarding
it to the list as well. I had sent a request to the original author if I may
forward it here but did not hear back. I am sending it anyways, but with his
email ID blanked out ...

bhava shankara desikame sharanam
Vaidya.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nomadeva Sharma" <==>
To: <vaidya_sundaram at HOTMAIL.COM>
Sent: Tuesday, November 12, 2002 6:00 AM
Subject: Re: Cause of Creation


> Dear Sri Vaidya-ji,
>
> I browse the advaita list archives infrequently and
> came across this thread on 'Causes of Creation', where
> Sri Kuntimaddi Sadananda had posted his understanding
> on how dvaitins and Vishishtadvaitins postulate the
> theory of creation. I am writing a personal mail, for,
> the list is not non-advaita list and wonder how many
> will be interested (also, I am not a member there).
>
> Under 'dvaita' it is correctly mentioned that Brahman
> is the nimittakAraNa only (though I couldn't
> understand what is difficult in that to understand
> that the potter does not modify himself to make the
> pot; more so in advaita where it is maintained that
> the pot is unreal, but the potter is real!)
>
> Jivas and Jadas are different from the Lord. This is
> so in Vishishtadvaita too, just that they say it is
> one from a different perspective. But it is clear that
> Ramanuja says that at the grass-root level, they are
> of different esse (Read Vedarthasangraha 4 and 6: sva
> itarasamastavastuvilakSaNasvarUpo).
>
> Apart from that, he mentions that "But my
> understanding of dvaita is lowest most of their texts
> spend more time criticizing maayavaada of Shankara
> than explaining their own theories". Here's a little
> compensating his not knowing where to look
> (notwithstanding the fact that his God-son is a
> mAdhva): The cause of creation is 'devasyaiSha
> svabhAvo.ayaM AtmakAmasya kA spR^ihA'. Ref. Mandukya
> Upanishad bhAShya. and sUtra-bhAShya on 'lokavattu
> lIlAkaivalyam.h'. Even V'advaita does not consider
> avidyA as a motivating factor, it is Lord's mercy AND
> sporting like a king playing a ball with his staff
> that causes creation. God bless K.Sadananda's effort
> in evaluating Sribhashya.
>
> Dvaita also holds that the Supreme Being has
> ichChA-shakti that moves the mUlaprakriti and creation
> happens. This ichChA-shakti being what it is, explains
> why the Brahman is still avyaya despite creation. This
> is another point of difference b/w Vishishtadvaita,
> which maintains that Lord has no ichChA (by giving a
> secondary meaning to 'ichChAmAtraM prabho sR^iShTiH')
> in the first place.
>
> Dvaita also explains creation using the vyUha concept
> of Pancharatras, which are accepted by V'advaitins,
> though I am not sure if they imbibe it into their
> sR^iShTi-prakaraNa. Btw, the first few verses in
> "Mahabharata-Tatparya-Nirnaya" should be clarify the
> dvaitin's harmonization of all of them.
>
> Regarding the contradictions in purANic theories the
> simplest answer is that not all of them are correct.
> Contradictions abound in shruti also: "asad eva idam
> agra asIt", "na sad AsIt no asad AsIt", "sadeva soumya
> idamagra Asit". ajAti-vAda is not the only way out.
>
> Thanks,
> Nomadeva
>
>