[Advaita-l] Ishwara Turiya?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Sunday, March 11, 2012, Venkatesh Murthy <vmurthy36 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Namaste
>
> If Ishwara is in Turiya he has to be Ishwara of something or someone.
> What is that? If there is something or someone like a Bhakta in Turiya
> and Ishwara is ruling it there is no Advaita but Dvaita. There is a
> ruler and there is a ruled thing.
>
>  In Vyavahara he is ruling the world. But in Turiya there is no world.
> What is he ruling? If he is not ruling anything you can call him as
> Ishwara or anything. It is a name only without meaning. But if you are
> calling Brahman as Ishwara there is no problem.

Ruler of someone else and knower of something else are not the meanings.
Ishwara that we know in vyavahara is in turiyAvastha just as a jnani is
except that a jnani has traces of avidya due to prarabda but not Ishwara.
Turiya is not some container in to which we are trying to fit Ishwara along
with some select jivan who qualify as His bhaktas. It is the unchanging
state of Vishnu. I (dehatma) go through 3 states but He does not. Gaudapada
Karika defines Turiya as Isa and Sankara does that in BSB. If you disagree,
your position has to be based on textual reference to Advaita acharyas
because we are trying to determine what Advaita position is.