[Advaita-l] jeevo brahmaiva naparaH

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms
Hare Krishna

Jeevo brahmaiva na paraH...jeeva is brahman only.  But fact is that like jagat the concept of jeeva also has been treated in two different ways in Advaita.  When the jeeva is addressed as shAreeri (shareere sthita) parichinna, upAdhi sahita (an individual) etc. the jeeva is nothing but talamalanaadi parikalpitam or avidyA kalpitaM.  But when the same jeeva viewed from the paramArtha drushti or paripUrNa drushti he (the jeeva) is upAdhi rahita, aparichinna, ashareeri brahman only.  Now the question is, when the main puport of shruti is Atmaikatva what is the need to talk about jeeva and his svarUpa??  And in vedAnta sUtra-s also bAdarAyaNa at some places clarifies,  'in this place Ishwara is vivakshita not the jeeva who is different from Ishwara' and he is 'etara' (another one) .  When there is no two Atma-s where is the need of this distinction ?? It is because like jagat which is pratyaksha siddha, jeeva too lOka prasiddha, upAdhi sahita jeeva is pratyaksha siddha hence through these two aspects (jeeva and jagat)  shruti pointing its finger towards the 'svarUpa' of them.  And that svarUpa is nothing but nitya shuddha Buddha mukta brahman.  In this brahman only the jeeva (parichinna) is parikalpita like dirt attributed to nirmal AkAsha.  (nitya shuddha Buddha mukta svabhave kUtastha nitye ekasmin asange paramAtmani tadvipareetaM jaivaM rUpaM vyOmneeva talamalAdi parikalpitaM clarifies shankara in sUtra bhAshya).  But we are openly declaring jeeva is brahman only na paraH !!?? how??  Because, when this jeeva devoid of upAdhi it loses its parichinnatva and realizes its paripUrNatva.  And this paripUrNa jnAni look at this nAmarUpAtmaka jagat and realizes that this jagat too, like him, in the svarUpa brahman only nothing else!! When jeeva and jagat attributed with svatantrAstitva (i.e. upAdhi drushti) it is avidyAkalpita only and these jeeva and jagat asarvaM, abrahmaM, asampUrNam etc.  Whereas when the same jeeva and jagt viewed from kAraNa drushti or svarUpa drushti like jeevO brahmaiva na paraH jagat too brahmam eva na paraH.  To drive home this point shruti again and again saying sarvaM brahma mayaM, sarvaM khalvidaM brahma, satyanchAnrutancha satyamabhavat yadidaM kiMcha, And shankara clarifies this further in ArambhaNAdhikaraNa sUtra bhAshya : kAryaM AkAshAdikaM bahuprapanchaM jagat kAraNam paraM brahma, tasmAt kAraNAt paramAthatOnanyatvaM vyatirekeNa abhAvaH kAryasya avagamyate.  So from the nirupAdhika paramArtha drushti no separate existence as such for the jeeva, jagat and Ishwara to put it in different compartments because what is there is one without second (neha nAnASti kiMchana ekamevAdviteeyaM). Jeeva, jagat and Ishwara all are brahman only nothing else.  When these have been viewed separately through upAdhi drushti these are avidyA kalpitaM eva.

Someone off the list some days back quoted below as ramaNa's quote :

//quote//

The jiva, world and Isvara are unreal.  They are like the illusion of the silver in the mother-of-pearl.  They rise and set and set simultaneously.  The jiva, world and Isvara are nothing but the Self.
//unquote//

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar