[Advaita-l] Ishwara Turiya?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Monday, March 12, 2012, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> I would once again appeal to students of Advaita to either attend a class
> by a renowned Acharya or start listening, on a daily basis, just like
being
> in a class, to the recorded lectures/classes of Swami Paramarthananda on
> the Mandukya Upanishad.  It will clarify a lot of things.

It is interesting that you cite the same teachers as Sri Devanathan but
draw different conclusions. Some people on this list, who attend
traditional diiscourses regularly, were reluctant to even say that Saguna
Brahman is in Turiya! They said that He is in susupti not differentiating
between Ishwara and Hiranyagarbha! I hope it is their inability to learn
and the tradition is alive. IMO, we should go by what sastras and Sankara
say. Textual evidence is the key.

Anyway, I don't see evidence for negation of Ishwara. The sharp difference
that you draw between Nirguna Brahman and Saguna Brahman is
unsubstantiated. There cannot be three entities in Turiya - Nirguna
Brahman, Para Maya and their composite Saguna Brahman. There is only one
entity termed differently based on the function from vyavahara perspective.

Those who think Ishwara is mithya should strongly advise Him to do
Nirgunopasana for citta suddhi and atma jnana! "mamopatta samasta Sri
parabrahma prityartham ..." :)