[Advaita-l] Who is Ishwara? He is NARAYANA only. Beautiful and soothing Narayana Bhajan

[Kalyan]

Sri Subrahmanian, I have no issue if you interpret some Shruti mantras to show that the Atman/brahman is affected by avidya. Unlike others, I dont consider this position as heresy. In fact, I have been saying all along that in advaita, it is the Atman/brahman alone that can be affected by avidya and none else. So I thank you for acknowledging that fact. By bringing up these two mantras, you have shown that I understood advaita correctly.
But simultaneously, advaita also says that the Atman can never be affected by avidya. THere are so many places where Shankara says this. Therefore, there is a contradiction in the position adopted by advaitins - that the Atman is affected by avidya and at the same time the Atman is not affected by avidya. 
There are other problems if the Atman is affected by avidya, but we will go step by step. 
RegardsKalyan 

    On Thursday, May 25, 2017 8:43 AM, V Subrahmanian via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
 

 There is no need to 'posit' avidya extraneously. The Br.Up. mantra 1.4. 9
and10 is there to do the job naturally:

तदाहुर्यद्ब्रह्मविद्यया सर्वं भविष्यन्तो मनुष्या मन्यन्ते । किमु
तद्ब्रह्मावेद्यस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवदिति ॥ ९ ॥

''They say that by brahmavidya one becomes infinite. What did that Brahman
realize, as a result of which It became all (infinite)?''

ब्रह्म वा इदमग्र आसीत्तदात्मानमेवावेत् । अहं ब्रह्मास्मीति ।
तस्मात्तत्सर्वमभवत्तद्यो यो देवानां प्रत्यबुध्यत स एव तदभवत्तथर्षीणां तथा
मनुष्याणां तद्धैतत्पश्यनृषिर्वामदेवः प्रतिपेदेऽहं मनुरभवं सूर्यश्चेति ।

That entity was Brahman is even before realization. It knew its Self, as
aham brahma asmi. Therefore it became infinite...

These two mantras are the vedic basis for the avidya of Brahman. And the
cessation/negation of that avidya by vidya.

So, one need not look for any extraneous 'positing' of avidya for brahman;
the Shruti itself does it on very firm basis. Non-advaitins find these two
mantras detrimental for their doctrine and so give a completely different
interpretation. That is not Advaita's problem.

regards
vs
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