[Advaita-l] Taittiriya Brahmana question

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> 
> Taittiriya Brahmana 2-8-9-6
> 
> A question is - Kimsvid Vanam Ka U Sa Vruksha Asit Yato Dyava Prthivi
> Nishtatakshuhu
> 
> Answer is given - Brahma Vanam Brahma Sa Vruksha Asit Yato Dyava
> Prthivi Nishtatakshuhu
> 
> Visishtadvaitis give this Sruti to say Brahma is the Material Cause
> for the Worlds. What is the Advaiti explanation?
> -- 

Except for dvaita vedAnta, it is a cardinal principle of all vedAnta schools
that brahman is the only cause, whether instrumental or material or in
any other kind of causality. advaita vedAntins have no issue whatsoever
with viSishTAdvaitins in accepting that brahman is the material cause of
the universe. However, it is only in advaita vedAnta, thanks to that great
sage gauDapAda and his grand-disciple, Sankara bhagavatpAda, that we
go a step further and thoroughly investigate the nature of causality itself.
We conclude that to see material nature as as an attribute of brahman,
in whatever sense one wants to describe an attribute, is ultimately wrong.

Regards,
Vidyasankar