[Advaita-l] ***UNCHECKED*** Extremely powerful reasoning for 'Aham Brahmasmi' in the Bh.Gita

[V Subrahmanian]

Dear Sudhanshu JI,

That the jiva is mithya is agreed. But what is mithya there is the anAtmA,
kshetra, aspect. The Chit aspect is Brahman. To say that the kshetrajna is
jneya will be conflicting with the 13th chapter, that is my concern. That
chapter is there to discriminate the Kshetrajna, Pure consciousness,
exemplified by the Ravi analogy in the 33 rd verse. So, it is kevala
prakasha svarupa, of the first sentence of the Adhyasa bhashya. The
kshetram stands opposed to it and is the 'tamas' of the Adhyasa bhashya.
The last verse of the 13th chapter has this message: One has to
discriminate oneself from the kshetram (the body mind complex that one had
taken to be oneself) and identify oneself as kshetrajna and also know the
kshetram to be mithya, abhAvagamana, as the bhashya says. In this scheme
the kshetrajna can't be mithya since he is not jneya. Rather he is the
prakAsha(ka). This is my understanding.

warm regards
subbu

On Sat, Oct 21, 2023 at 12:04 PM Sudhanshu Shekhar <sudhanshu.iitk at gmail.com>
wrote:

> //The jneya part of 'ourselves' is the body-mind complex, which is already
> included in the definition of the kshetram in the same chapter and the
> jnAtA/avabhAsaka is what is the kshetrajna identified with Brahman. L//
>
> The jnAtA/avabhAsak part in case of AbhAsa-vAda is chidAbhAsa unlike
> pratibimbavAda.
>
> AbhAsa is mithyA and hence bAdha-sAmanAdhikaraNya applies.
>
> The identification with Brahman of such chidAbhAsa is not mukhya. That is
> my understanding.
>
> Basically kshetrajnam (jiva) cha api ma'am (Brahman) viddhi i.e. know the
> jIva to be Brahman -- is explained in two manners, bAdha and mukhya-- that
> is my submission.
>
> In case of bAdha, such Kshetrajna is also jneya.
>
> What exactly is the error here. Kindly highlight.
>
> We may not exactly refer even this mithyA chidAbhAsa jIva by the word
> kshetra -- but the fact remains that it is mithyA.
>
> Regards.
>
>