[Advaita-l] Does praNava upAsanA leads to brahmaloka?

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Sri Bhaskar ji,

Do you mean 'Om iti brahma' because 'OmityekAkshram brahma' is from
Mahanarayana Upanishad, not Taittiriya. On the former, Shankaracharya says

इदानीं सर्वोपासनाङ्गभूतस्य ओङ्कारस्योपासनं विधित्स्यते ।
परापरब्रह्मदृष्ट्या हि उपास्यमान ओङ्कारः शब्दमात्रोऽपि
परापरब्रह्मप्राप्तिसाधनं भवति ; स ह्यालम्बनं ब्रह्मणः परस्यापरस्य
च,प्रतिमेव विष्णोः, ‘एतेनैवायतनेनैकतरमन्वेति’ (प्र. उ. ५-२) इति श्रुतेः ।
ओमिति, इतिशब्दः स्वरूपपरिच्छेदार्थः ; ॐ इत्येतच्छब्दरूपं ब्रह्म इति मनसा
धारयेत् उपासीत; यतः ॐ इति इदं सर्वं हि शब्दस्वरूपमोङ्कारेण व्याप्तम्, ‘तद्यथा
शङ्कुना’ (छा. उ. २-२३-३) इति श्रुत्यन्तरात् । ‘अभिधानतन्त्रं ह्यभिधेयम्’
इत्यतः इदं सर्वमोङ्कार इत्युच्यते । ओङ्कारस्तुत्यर्थ उत्तरो ग्रन्थः,
उपास्यत्वात्तस्य ।

Now OmkAra which forms a preliminary part to all upAsanas is going to be
explained. Om, is meditated as either the higher or lower Brahman because
despite being a word is a means to attain both the higher and lower Brahman
(unmanifest and manifest Brahman), just like an idol of Vishnu (is
worshipped representing the Lord Vishnu) - As the Prashna Upanishad says,
"He becomes one with either, by his sanctuary". The word "iti" in "Om iti"
is used to call attention to the form of the word (as opposed to the
meaning). One should meditate upon Brahman in the form of the word "Om".  (All
this, all the objects, are words) and all words are represented by the
OmkAra - hence Om is all this. Like the Chandogya which says "Just like the
stem etc", all the things that are named, are dependent on the name. Hence
OmkAra is all this. The next portion is for the glorification of OmkAra,
because OmkAra meditation has being enjoined.

By Omkara, saguNa upAsana only is being enjoined because nirguNa Brahman
can never be an object of upAsana. On the other hand, the yato vAco
nivartante shruti is describing nirguNa Brahman.

Regards
Venkatraghavan


On Thu, Sep 8, 2016 at 1:15 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Just came to mind, it would be interesting to know what shankara says on
> TU mantra 'Om ityekAksharaM brahma' when brahman is yatO vAcho nivartante
> aprApya manasa saha..Unfortunately I don’t remember anything about shankara
> bhAshya with regard to this in T. Up. mantra.   Age really matters some
> time :-)
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>
>
>