[Advaita-l] Does Brahman Know?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

Sri Vidyasankar, noted your general "answer". Our svarupa is determined
through sastras which is known through a sampradaya before personal
realization. Before realization, one can definitely have sraddha (strong or
weak) but this sraddha is only a mental modification subject to further
change. Now, according to advaita, we are all flour. But according to
bhedAbheda, we are all of course flour but also idli, dosai, idli
kozhakkattai, idli fry etc. By saying that I am only flour but not others,
one denies one's own nature. To avoid getting the title of "idli subban",
let me quickly change the example :)

We see ocean (ishwra) , waves (jiva) and water (brahman). In reality, all
this is water only but we also know that the names wave and ocean exist
because there is a substantive reality to it. We cannot name an object (or a
subject) that does not exist or such a word will have no meaning. Even if
the object is destroyed, the notion of the object is not destroyed and the
knowledge of the object remains. For example, we go to the beach on low tide
and say there are no waves today because wave is a reality from our point of
view though it does not exist as an object of observation. For the ocean,
the reality of water that makes it and waves that issue forth and merge back
is never sublated. In other words, the reality of ocean, waves and water
cannot be sublated as long as omniscient ishwara exists. As ishwara is
immutable, the platonic ideal of ocean, waves and water will not cease to
be. Of course, you can get around this by saying that omniscience of Ishwara
is mayika and is sublated on mukti along with Ishwara like the the stick
used for burning the corpse. Hence my original question. Does Brahman Know?
- not in the sense of subject-object duality but without that. Let me
rephrase that. You said Brahman IS Bliss. Is Brahman Existence? Is Brahman
Jnanam? For Ishwara, jnana shakti is an attribute but for Brahman jnanam is
not a shakti but Brahman is jnanam.