[Advaita-l] Adwaita and yoga.

[srikanta]

> Sri sunil Bhattacharya,
> You say that vedanta teaches at the ultimate level and Yoga teaches at the
> Vedanthic level.This is wrong.Yoga may teach at its own level,but it
> cannot replace vedanta which doesnot require kriya.You are wrong when you
> say that"cittavrttinirodha'is necessary for the manana.Shankara in his
> introduction to the Brahmasutrabhashya doesnot mention Yoga.Vedanta
> requires only discrimination of atma from the anatma.Yoga involves other
> kriyas which require Ashtangayoga marga.
> sincerely, N.Srikanta.
>

Dear Sri Srikanta,

I must admire your determination in this thread, but I think you are
presenting only
one aspect of the vedAntic picture. With respect to yoga, sAMkhya and
vedAnta,
the viveka of AtmA from anAtmA and manana-nididhyAsana, please see gItA verse
"dhyAneNAtmani paSyanti kecid AtmAnam AtmanA" and the bhAshya by the revered
bhagavatpAda on that verse.

May I also point out that to understand advaita vedAnta properly, one has
to progress
beyond the introduction to the sUtrabhAshya? I would like to point to the
bhAshya on
sUtra 2.3.39-40 - samAdhy abhAvAc ca and yathA takshobhayathA. Yes, yoga
requires
kriyA and the notion that the jIva is a kartA, but this is nevertheless
well recognized
within vedAnta as an upAya to AtmadarSana. This point has been beautifully
brought
out in these two bhAshya passages. In sUtrabhAshya 2.1.3, we have the same
thought
expressed - yoga is indeed accepted as an upAya for samyag-darSana, if not
in its own
independent right. Under the sUtra, api ca samrAdhane
pratyakshAnumAnAbhyAm, the
revered bhagavatpAda affirms that "yogins" see the Atman through bhakti,
dhyAna and
praNidhAna - the two latter terms are loaded with yogic meaning. As for
citta vRtti
nirodha, please see bhAshya-s on bRhadAraNyaka 1.4.7 (explicit reference
to citta
vRtti nirodha) and on kaTha verse, "parAnci khAni vyatRNat svayambhUH"
(implicit
reference).

Yes, yoga cannot replace vedAnta, but I would think that a quiet yogin has
a better
chance to remove avidyA and realize the Atman than those of us who engage in
vociferous disputations, full of words of learned length and thundering
sound.

To both Sri Sunil Bhattacharya and Sri Srikanta,

Please limit the number of posts sent to the list per day. Instead of
responding to a
single point per post, please consolidate related issues together. It
would make for
better reading and perhaps help other list members to understand where the
two
of you agree and where you differ. As of now, this entire two-way
discussion is
extremely confusing and it is only getting worse with each day.

Regards,
Vidyasankar

______________________________________________
Dear Vidyashankarji,
You have quoted from Shankara bhashya,to prove that a Yogi has a better
chance of understanding than mere disputants who use lot of words in their
disputation.
As of now,it is sufficient for me to say that this conclusion is not a
proof to say that Shankara considered yoga as an aid for self-realisation
or that he had sympathy to Yoga,or the realisations in Yoga is of the same
level as Vedanta,is not Shankara's view,in his bhashyas.otherwise he would
have explicitly said that.No where in his bhashyas we see the implication
that Yoga is also an aid to vedanta for self-realisation.All his prakarana
granths emphasize this.In his commentary of a grantha like Bhagawadgita
which contains all the terms like sankhya,yoga,Bhakthi,etc.he has to
comment with reference to its context.By this we should not come to
erroneous conclusions.
Regards,                                              N.Srikanta.