[Advaita-l] Adwaita and God

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Srikantaji,

I must say that I never denied the superiority of Vedanta. You have  overlooked my statement that Vedanta is at the ultimate level.  Nobody envisages Vedanta to be without Jnana.  I am repeating the gist of what I said as it appears that you have not understood yoga. Yoga advises Ishvara Pranidhana and says that the vachaka of Ishvara is OM and also that Ishvara is a Vishesh Purush.That is adequate for liberation from Prakriti.  However Yoga does not give the knowledge that Ishvara and the Purusha are one and the same.  The Yogi has to have the Advaita knowledge to achieve that. 

The Hatha yoga Kriyas are to be practised by all spiritual aspirants at one time or the other, whether he calls himself a yogi or a Vedantin. Hathayoga is necessary for the Raja yoga
 and vice versa, as Lord Shiva himself told that in the Shiva Samhita.  Nobody can say that Hathayoga kriyas are not required to be practised by an Advaitin at one time or the orther. In case you are not aware  the  great Advaitin  Adi Sankaracharya himself was one of the greatest Hatha yogis. He told his disciples that he was adapt in Vajroli, which is the most difficult of all thyogic asanas and mudras. 

In the Bhagavad Gita the Lord says that whatever one prays to him for gets that from the Lord. The Lord  is the OM of the Yogi. If the yogi has the knowledge of Advaita he will wish to be one with the Lord. If someone asks the Lord for material benefit only and do not seek the unity with the Lord then he will obviously  get the material benefit only. I shall request you to read the Bhagavad Gita once again as you have read it earlier as a primer. 

When Gaudapada says in his work on Mandukya that one has to meditate on OM, that is an advice to practice Yoga to achieve liberation. I do not know if you have read the Yogavashistha. If you think Yoga's OM is different from Vedanta's OM can you tell me the difference?  Please don't try to tell that only one pada of  OM of Vedanta is the same as the OM of Yoga. 

Regards,.

 Sunil K. Bhattacharjya



--- On Fri, 11/5/10, srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in> wrote:

From: srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Adwaita and God
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Friday, November 5, 2010, 9:13 PM

Dear Sunil Bhattacharji,
Those who sasy that Ishwara in yoga is a sort of special Purusha without
the veil,and that it is the same as Brahman have not understood Shankara's
Adwaita.If we say that Yoga and Jnana are one,then they have
 not
understood Shankara.Shankara has exhaustively covered this in his
bhashyas.If a Yogi remains in dwaita,then he cannot escape sorrow.If you
want to know about this,read Ishavasyopanishad and Shankara
Bhashya.Incidentally you had said,Shankara had to write two bhshyas on
Kenopanishad.Infact,he has written two bhashyas on Ishavasyopanishad
also.One following Kanva shakha,and the other following Madhyandina
shakha.Such "Patantharas"are common in bhashyas.
                                                      N.Srikanta.






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