[Advaita-l] Debunking Drishti-Srishti Vada and Eka Jiva Vada - part 1

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Anandji,

As always, I am thankful for your wonderful and precise mails.

On Thu, Jul 20, 2017 at 12:49 PM, Anand Hudli via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> So it depends on what one is prepared to accept for the "tat"pada - whether
> "tat" represents Ishvara with all His attributes such as sarveshitva,
> sarvajnatva, sarvavyapitva,sarvAntaryAmitva, sarvaniyAmakatva, etc or the
> shuddhacaitanya- and what one is prepared to accept for the "tvam"pada - a
> jIva with alpajnatva, etc. or the lone jIva who is responsible for all
> sRShTi through dRShTi. Strange as it  may seem, it is possible to have a
> view with Ishvara and just one jIva. Advanced upAsakas, for example, may
> see God everywhere, including in other people and animals. There will be no
> other jIvas but just the upAsaka and God. The upAsaka may or may not be
> willing to accept Ishvara as the jIva's creation as in DSV/EJV. If he is
> not willing to do so, he may subscribe to the view of Ishvara-sRShTi.
>

​Since Ishvara can be understood as collapsed into tvampada in DSV, in my
opinion, it can also be said that in SDV, jIvas and jagat is merged into
one Ishvara, while in DSV, jagat and Ishvara are merged into one jIva.
These different approaches lead to the same goal, earlier or later.


> PrakAshAnanda, the author of the well known work on DSV,
> VedAntasiddhAntamuktAvali  was said to have been an upAsaka in the tantric
> mode of worship. Many other advaitins, such as appayya dIkShita,
> madhusUdanasarasvatI, and several Sringeri lineage AchAryas were/are ardent
> upAsakas of forms of Ishvara.
>
> ​For some reason, people superimpose​

​their misunderstanding on DSV and say there is no Ishvara, Maya, etc, in
DSV. And many a time, there is a misunderstanding of ​Kshanika Vijnanavada
also whereby people end up comparing DSV with it. As you point out, DSV
itself need not be one flavour. Everything that is possible in SDV
vyavahAra is equally possible in DSV vyavahAra, although prAtibhAsika.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* येनेदं सर्वं विजानाति, तं केन विजानीयात्। Through what should one know
That owing to which all this is known! [Br.Up. 4.5.15] */
​