[Advaita-l] Re: paJNchAyatana pUja

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

For example, arjuna is portrayed as an amsha of indra. Now, if we uphold
the
view that the entity referred to by the name "indra"  is Ishvara Himself,
then the episode of indra being chastised by bhava etc. would have to be
taken as a lIla. Similarly, if we consider the episode of ahalya and indra,
we either have to interpret it as lIla or attribute the dOSha of desire to
Ishvara (And since Ishvara cannot have dOSha, it must have been a lIla). Is
this a position acceptable to advaita vEdAnta?

praNAms prabhuji
Hare Krishna

In the trasactional reality, we have to have the difference among different
dEvata-s.  In shAstra-s we can find the quotes like bhIshAsmadvAtaH pavate
bhIshOdEti sUryaH...and in shruti itself there is a mention that Indra,
agni, varuNa & vAyu suffered defeat in the hands of *yaksha rUpi
Ishwara*....Here it is evident that Indra, varuNa, agni etc. are all
*ahimAni dEvata-s* & they have some super natural powers when compared to
ordinary human being but in them as an antaryAmi Ishwara is there to
control their activities...these things cannot be proved through pratyaksha
and anumAna pramAna...we have to have shraddha in shAstra & guru vAkya.  In
gIta also lord hints about different dEvata-s apart from one supreme
god...kindly see verses starts from yO yO yAm yAm tanuM bhaktaH, yEpyanya
dEvatA bhaktA etc. etc.

Hope this would help

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar