[Advaita-l] saguNOpAsana- reply to Baskar ji

[Antharyami]

Hari Om,

Shri Baskar ji,

        You glorified the list by mentioning a brilliant question about Adi
Shankara's stand on saguNOpAsana which seeks to establish NArAyaNa alone as
the saguNa Brahman, thus fixing the notion for bakthi and jnAna in Advaita
philosophy on the basis of prasthna thrayi bAshyAs. I would like first
mention the gIta vAkya 11-43

         'na tvatsamOsti | abyadI: kutOnya: : for this verse Adi shankara in
his bAshya states that ' kasmAt guruta: tvam ithyAha – na tvatsama –
tvattulya: astI | nahi Ishwaradvayam sambavAdI: anEkEshwaratvE
vyAvahArAnupatatE: | tvat sama Eka tAvat anya: na smabavAti kuta Eka anya:
abyadIka: syAt lokAtrayEpi sarvasmin ? apramadima prabAva ! …
niratsayaprabAva ! ityAtta:

         [ who is found above You? (NArAyaNa) why is that you are said to be
above all ? you are so, because there is none similar unto You ( NArAyaNa)
there cannot be two IswarA's. the vyAvahArika  cannot take its course if
there are many IswarA's. when I say there is no one equal to you, it means
that there is no one above or below ]  here Adi Sankara denotes NArAyaNa as
the saguNa Brahman and not the NirguNa Brahman. Further, in his GItA bAshya
(7-17) Adi Sankara speaks about the Eka Bakthi. The bAshya is as follows. '
Eka bakthisca ananyasya bajanIyasya adarsanAt' [ I find no one unto whom I
submit my bhakthi – such is the Eka bakthi ]

         speaking about ananya yOga, Adi Sankara declares for the BG verse
(13-10) which is 'mayi cAnanya yOgena bakthiravyabicAriNI' for which he
comments upon saying

         'mayi ca IshwarE ananya yOgEna – abruta ksmadina – na ananya
bagavatO vAsudEvAt para: asti ata sa Eva na: gatI: ityEvam niscita bajanam
bakthi: na vyabicAriNa sIla avyabicAriNI | sA ca jnAnam!'
          [ there I no one who is above vAsudEva. Hence forth He is the only
refuge one can seek. The knowledge of such, that is without vyabicAra (
worshipping other deities ) is known as ananya yOga ]  here Adi Sankara
clearly defines the term avyabicArini to denote non-worship hood of other
deities as they don't equal Lord vAsudEva. vAsudEva ( NArAyaNa) for Adi
Shankara is the saguNa Brahman. The ananya shabdha is the foundational
syllable for the ananya yOga. Interestingly, Adi shankara regards Eka Bakthi
in relation to jnAna ' Bajanam bakthi .. sAca jnAnam' hence for Anaya yOga
AchArya prescribes Bakthi the organ for jnAna. Thus saguNOpAsana unto
NArAyaNa alone us critically justified.
-- 
Antharyami
[J.Devanathan]