Understanding Advaitism (Svetaashvatara Upanishad 1.6)

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1) Saguna BRAHMAN is not material according to Sankara. You know he

says Narayana is beyond avyakta. As it is in the invocation sloka,

it has to refer to the deity and that is how Ananda Giri comments on

that too. I quoted this because you are familiar with this through

Srila Prabhupada's writings. But there are a number of other

quotations where he clearly establishes that God is eternal and

transcendental. He clearly talks about Savisesha Samadhi referred to

by Vaishnavas.

 

2)Considering themselves different from the controller, the jivas

wander in the great wheel of brahman. The said jivas here are not

ignorant about the existence of the controller in which case the

upanishad would have said that the jivas unaware of the controller

wander in the great wheel of brahman. But the said jivas in this

case are wandering in ignorance of the identity of the oneness

between themselves and the controller. Sv. Up. verse clearly

eliminates absolute duality not advaitam. Of course, you can say

what the nature of identity and each school has a different view.

The main point is this verse cannot be proposed as an argument

againsst advaitam. You have to try a better argument against

advaitam - how about the two birds on a tree or nityo nityanam verse

or natve vaham or mamaivamso? -

 

3) Before criticizing Sankara, it would be proper to understand why

he says this world has sad asad lakshanam. It is a separate topic

itself and would like to deal with separately after you agree with

the position of Iswara according to Sankara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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