[Advaita-l] All gods derive their knowledge from Brahman only

[V Subrahmanian]

All gods derive their knowledge from Brahman only

It is well known in the Upanishads that Brahman is Jnanasvarupam and
everything else in the created world shines by that Pure Consciousness. All
gods, humans, and other sentient entities derive their sentience from that
Pure Consciousness alone. This Consciousness is the essence of all beings.
Even those entities in the cosmos such as the sun derive their illumining
power from this Pure Consciousness alone. In this background let us see the
tenability of this verse of Sri Vedanta Desika:

वेदान्त देशिकः when he makes a remark against  दक्षिणामुर्तिः vide shloka
no. 7 of his हयग्रीवस्तोत्रं :

 दाक्षिण्यरम्या  गिरिशस्य मूर्तिः देवी
 सरोजासनधर्मपत्नी ।
 व्यासादयोऽपि  व्यपदेश्यवाचः
 स्फुरन्ति सर्वे तव  शक्तिलेशैः ॥ ७॥

http://www.parakalamatham.org/Sri-Matham/Sri-Hayagriva-Stotram

 //The pretty-to-behold (ramyA) form of KailAsanAthan (GirIsan) known as
DakshiNAmUrthy, the “Goddess of Learning” and the wife of Brahma Devan with
the name of Sarasvathi having the white lotus as Her abode and even Sage
VyAsA and others famous for their powers of divine Vaak --all of them
derive their Saarasvatham (power of divine speech) from a mere fragment of
the power of the Adhi VidhyA Moorthy, Lord HayagrIvan.//


We have in the Shvetashvatoropanishat the mention of Dakshinamurti, Lord
Shiva:

अजात इत्येवं कश्चिद्भीरुः प्रपद्यते।
रुद्र यत्ते दक्षिणं मुखं तेन मां पाहि नित्यम्।।4.1.21।।

[Unborn Thou art, in Thee does a mortal in the throes of fear take refuge,
O Rudra (destroyer of ignorance), ever protect me with Thy able inspiring
South-facing countenance.]

In the Mahabharata Lord Krishna says:

14_004_1454 निवेशयति मन्मूर्त्या आत्मानं मद्गतः शुचिः

14_004_1455 रुद्रदक्षिणमूर्त्यां वा चतुर्दश्यां विशेषतः

14_004_1456 सिद्धैर्ब्रह्मर्षिभिश्चैव देवलोकैश्च पूजितः

14_004_1457 गन्धर्वैर्भूतसंघैश्च गीयमानो महातपाः

14_004_1458 प्रविशेत्स महातेजा मां वा शंकरमेव वा

14_004_1459 तस्यापुनर्भवं (sic) राजन्नात्र कार्या विचारणा

Whoever on the Chaturdashī, gives himself up in devotion to My (Vishnu’s)
form or to the form of Rudra-Dakshināmūrti, will be worshiped by the
siddha-s, brahmaṛṣi-s and the devaloka-s and praised by the gandharva-s and
the bhūta-groups, he, such a devotee is Mahātapāḥ. Such a devotee endowed
with great Tejas will be united with Me or Shankara; he will be freed from
rebirth. No doubt need to be had in this, O Yudhishtira!

https://adbhutam.wordpress.com/2017/04/24/worship-of-
shiva-or-vishnu-lead-to-the-same-result-mahabharata/

The Sūtasamhitā, a part of the Skanda Purāṇa, has a 'Dakshinamurti stotram':

http://sanskritdocuments.org/doc_shiva/dakShiNAmUrtistotraSu
tasamhita.html?lang=sa

ईशानं सर्वविद्यानामीश्वरेश्वरमव्ययम् ।
उत्पत्त्यादिविनिर्मुक्तं ओङ्कारकमलासनम् ॥ ९॥


The Lord of all vidyā-s, the Lord of all lords, transcending birth, etc.,
seated on the lotus of Omakāra,

रुद्र यत्ते मुखं तेन दक्षिणं पाहि मामिति ।
उक्त्वा पुनः पुनर्देवं पूजयामास भक्तितः ॥ १३॥


He was worshiped by beseeching Him again and again as 'O Rudra, protect us,
with Thy South-faced countenance..' (a reference to the
Shvetashvataropanishat which has been proclaimed to be Shiva specific alone
and not any other deity by puranas.)

The epithet 'ādhāram sarvavidyānām' used in the Hayagriva stotra, is not
unique. It is also used by Krishna in the Mahabharatha 12.46/17th chapter
applying it to Bhīṣma. Krishna is in rapt meditation while Bhishma on his
death bed is meditating on Krishna. Yudhishtira asks Krishna 'Whom are you
meditating upon?' and Krishna in reply says it is on Bhishma and in that
discourse says:

17 rāmasya dayitaṃ śiṣyaṃ jāmadagnyasya pāṇḍava
     ādhāraṃ sarvavidyānāṃ tam asmi manasā gataḥ

http://www.sacred-texts.com/hin/m12/m12a046.htm

[I was thinking of him, O son of Pandu, who is the favourite disciple of
(Parashu) Rama, the son of Jamadagni, and *who is the receptacle of the
sciences.]*

We find a variant of that epithet as 'Īśānam sarvavidyānām' used in the
praise of Dakshinamurti in the Suta samhita verse. That the epithet, in one
or the other variant, is quite common and is not unique can be seen even
from the Bhagavadgita 15th chapter 19th verse:

यो मामेवमसंमूढो जानाति पुरुषोत्तमम् ।
स सर्वविद्भजति मां सर्वभावेन भारत ॥ १९ ॥

The word 'sarvavit' means: all-knowing. Shankara comments that word
as: // सर्ववित्
सर्वात्मना सर्वं वेत्तीति सर्वज्ञः He who knows everything in their
comprehensive way is omniscient.// Any self-realized person is sarvavit.

Brahmavidyā sarvavidyā pratiṣṭhā:

The Mundakopanishat opens with this mantra:

ब्रह्मा देवानां प्रथमः सम्बभूव विश्वस्य कर्ता भुवनस्य गोप्ता ।
स ब्रह्मविद्यां सर्वविद्याप्रतिष्ठामथर्वाय ज्येष्ठपुत्राय प्राह ॥ १ ॥

1 Om. Brahma, the Creator of the universe and the Preserver of the world,
was the first among the devas. He told His eldest son Atharva about
the *Knowledge
of Brahman, the foundation of all knowledge. *

Shankara says for the terms: तां ब्रह्मविद्याम्  सर्वविद्याप्रतिष्ठां
सर्वविद्याभिव्यक्तिहेतुत्वात्सर्वविद्याश्रयामित्यर्थः ;
 सर्वविद्यावेद्यं वा वस्त्वनयैव ज्ञायत इति, ‘येनाश्रुतं श्रुतं भवति अमतं
मतमविज्ञातं विज्ञातम्’ (छा. उ. ६ । १ । ३)
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Chandogya?page=6&id=Ch_C06_S01_V03&hl=%E0%A4%AF%E0%A5%87%E0%A4%A8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%20%E0%A4%B6%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A5%81%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%20%E0%A4%AD%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%BF%20%E0%A4%85%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%20%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9E%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%82%20%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%9C%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%9E%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A4%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%8D>
इति
श्रुतेः ।

Brahmavidyā, knowledge of Brahman, is the abode, support, of all knowledge
because it is the cause of the manifestation of all knowledge. It is due to
this Consciousness that the object of all sciences is known. The Chandogya
shruti says: By hearing which everything else is deemed to have been
heard.....'

Thus, it is the Pure consciousness the realization of which constitutes the
means for liberation, is the abode, ādhāram, of all vidyā. Therefore any
Jnani being endowed with the realization of the Supreme Consciousness is
the ādhāram of all vidyā.

The Padmapurana, Shivagita (for which a Jagadguru of the Sringeri Peetham
has written a bhashya in the 15/16 CE) holds the Shvetashvatara Upanishad
and also the Kaivalyopanishat as being Shiva-specific:

*श्वेताश्वतरमन्त्रेण* स्तुवन्तं गिरिजापतिम् ।

अनन्तादिमहानागान्कैलासगिरिसन्निभान् ॥ ४२॥

*कैवल्योपनिषत्पाठान्म*णिरत्नविभूषितान् ।  [clear that the Kaivalyopaniṣat
is Rudra-specific]

Also, there itself:

कैवल्योपनिषत्सूक्तं श्वेताश्वतरमेव च । [Kaivalya and Śvetāśvatara are
Rudra-specific]

Even before the Hayagriva stotram claims that Dakshinamurti, Shiva, derives
his knowledge from Hayagriva, the Suta samhita of the Skanda purana has
said:

ब्रह्माणं मुनयः पूर्वं सृष्ट्वा तस्मै महेश्वरः ।

दत्तवानखिलान्वेदानात्मन्येव स्थितानिमान् ॥ ४०

Maheshvara created in the yore Brahmā and to him bestowed all the Vedas
that are stored in His Self.

ब्रह्मा सर्वजगत्कर्ता शिवस्य परमात्मनः ।

प्रसादादेव रुद्रस्य स्मृतीः सस्मार सुव्रताः ॥ ४१

Brahmā, the Creator of all the worlds, attained the memory of all smrtis by
the grace of Rudra alone, the Supreme Self.

विष्णुर्विश्वजगन्नाथो विश्वेशस्य शिवस्य तु ।

आज्ञया परया युक्तो व्यासो जज्ञे गुरुर्मम ॥ ४२

Vishnu, the Lord of the universe, by the command of Shiva alone incarnated
as Vyasa.

स पुनर्देवदेवस्य प्रसादादम्बिकापतेः ।

संक्षिप्य सकलान्वेदांश्चतुर्धा कृतवान्द्विजाः ॥ ४३

Vyasa, again, by the grace of the Lord, Ambikāpati, Shiva, condensed the
entire vedic corpus and codified it four-fold.


Thus, the idea conveyed by Vedanta Desika in the Hayagriva stotra is
already there in the Purana, with Shiva as the Source of all knowledge that
all divinities possess. For the Vedantin, this Shiva is Turiya, Brahman. On
this template any one deity can be placed as the Source and all the other
deities can be shown as the 'receivers' of knowledge. That is perfectly in
order in view of the variety of tastes, proclivities, etc. Trouble arises
only when someone becomes a victim of bigotry and tries to claim supremacy
of 'his' iṣṭa deity to the detriment of all other deities. An Advaitin
alone, as exemplified by Appayya Dikshta, can transcend all petty ideas and
portray the true spirit of the Vedanta. Non-advaitic schools, dependent on
a particular deity, therefore, cannot be free from partisan handicaps.

For the Upanishadic expression 'Eko Narayanaḥ', the Brahmanandi commentary
for the Advaitasiddhi says that it is Chinmātra, Pure Consciousness, that
is, not any formed deity.

Om Tat Sat