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

[Aditya Kumar]

Namaste,
To limit my emails, I am responding to everyone in a single email. Apologies if it is inconvenient to read. 
To Vidyashankaraji :- 
I agree with what you are saying. But to elaborate or say it in a completely different way is fine, but interpreting the same verses differently like 'love of god/surrender' instead of 'abandonment/jnana' is to take an altogether different position. It may not contradict the general theme of 'Advaita' but in the scheme of things, like how to go about from phenomenal existence to attaining Moksha (sadhana part), there is a indeed a difference. So from that angle, we may say it is different. In all my quotations, I am sharing the view of respective authors unless there is an objection or a different view offered. In any case, it is very apparent. 
PS : I read your stand on DSV. I felt that was a fair assessment. 
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To Subrahmanianji :- 
It is said that, the different levels of reality has been mentioned by pre-Shankara Advaitins like Audolomi. Apparently even Vachaspati Misra mentions it. As a matter of fact, much of the core concepts of Advaita appears in pre-Shankara Advaita related works. Just to clarify, I am not an adversary of Advaita, we follow Shankaracharya and irrespective of that, I have tremendous respect for him simply because of his broadness of vision and sharp intellect. In fact, Modi does not say anything bad against MS instead he lauds him for boldly expressing his views. 
The main reason why deviation thing is being mentioned here is because of the methodology used. In various versions of DSV, when we say jiva creates the world simultaneously as it perceives, we will have to explain how. If we say duality of seer-seen world is due to maya, no explanation is required(SDV). Hence the DSV advocates resort to either vijnanavada style of saying - world does not have objective reality but is mere projection of ideas or they say the world is like an illusion (rejecting vyavaharika and accepting only pratibhasika). But interestingly, pratibhasika is dependant on vyavaharika only. So why not reject pratibhasika and admit only two levels - vyavaharika and paramarthika? In any case, these explanations are unsatisfactory and sometimes contradictory. Hence the doubt. 
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To Bhaskarji:-
Interestingly, Sachidananda saraswati swami also takes a harsh tone against Mandana Misra, a very respected Advaitin. In fact, many scholars opine that his clout was equal to that of Shankara himself and he was an authority on Advaita in his times. 
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To All:-
Why should we admit pratabhasika, which is a lower level of reality when compared to Vyavaharika and reject vyavaharika? Even if it is so, how does this establish DSV or 'unreality of the world like illusion'. I think Gaudapada mentions this in GK too. 
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