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Thread: Different views of śakti or mAyA?

  1. #71
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    Re: Different views of śakti or mAyA?

    namaste Atanu.

    You seem to have misunderstood the intention behind my posts quoting from everywhere in an attempt to establish that mAyA is NOT ALL jaDa, but has a chaitanya (albeit bimba--reflected) component to it, which is what deludes the jIvas.

    • If the jaDa component of mAyA appears as the jagat--world, the chaitanya-bimba component appears as the antaH-karaNa--chitta, manas, buddhi, ahaMkAra--impressions, mind, intellect reflected as buddhi/mana-sAkShin and ego (or jIva which represents the individual will/intellect, which again is only a bimba--reflection of the Self).

    • Both these components of mAyA constitute AvidyA--nescience, which has both cosmic and individual aspects. The individual aspect of AvidyA deludes individual jIvas, who seeks the blessings of Shakti and she gives him the VidyA to destroy his AdvidyA and move towards the Self in him. If one jIva is liberated, another is still in bonds, which shows that AvidyA has its cosmic and individual aspects of delusion.

    *****

    As to your query, "In all your citations, I did not see Parashakti mentioned as a separate entity that spurs Brahman.", I can only say that

    • I did not mean it either. My impression is that Shakti inheres in Brahman (the ShaktimAn) as his power and mAyA inheres in Shakti (which is why she is known as MahAmAyA. The Goddess at Samayapuram temple, Trichy, TN has the name MahamAyI). Brahman uses his inherent power of Shakti to become SaguNa and create the universe of sentient and insentient beings, and thereupon, Shakti uses her power of mAyA to veil both the Brahman and jIva.

    ‣ Thus, in one sense we can say that Shakti (as chit--intellect, yes, as you say) spurs Brahman from Being One to Becoming Many; her power of mAyA (which is a part of her personality), along with his guNa-karma, spurs the jIva, from deep sleep to wakeful state, for he has work to finish and wishes to fulfil.

    • On Self-Realization, a jIva gets his AvidyA destroyed, and he is able to see through the veil of mAyA in his wakeful and dream states, and stay merged in Self with full knowledge, past mAyA, in the deep sleep and turIya states. As against his, a jIva who has not seen his source, passes through his deep sleep with no knowledge of already being there.

    • That jnAni who has become a jIvan-mukta--liberated while living, still leads his worldly life as a jIva, but by the anugraha--grace, of Shakti, he now has utmost purity in all his inner and outer faculties, and his inner peace and Ananda oozes out as love and compassion in his personality.

    Quote Originally Posted by atanu View Post
    Suppose, an individual soul is a sinner (not a sage) and commits a murder of a Brahmana on waking up, then, would you say that Parashakti impelled the individual to the sin? That is not heard of, since then either the Self or the Intellect will be held to be the sinner. Both the Self (Satyam-Sambhu) and the Right (Ritam-Devi) are held as immaculate and taintless.
    A rather taunting question, this one, but it is important that we know its answer. You know the answer, but you worded it differently, so let me guess.

    • An incident of the type you mention actually happened in Chennai several years back. A pious, elderly brahmin couple were murdered at the time of dawn and the bodies were stacked in the bathroom. There was a queue of people in front of their bangalow at that time, waiting to buy milk at the booth, and yet no one had any inkling of the murder. It was a case of burglary that led to murder, and probably the thief did it upon waking from his sleep. Did ParAShakti spur his action is the question.

    I am rather surprised that Atanu, who usually speaks of guNa-karma, hasn't mentioned the guNa part now, and in them lies the answer. A jIva experiences its karmic balance in this life, and its accretion of further karma is due to its guNa makeup. The guNa makeup, in turn, in this life, is the result of the past vAsanas and unfulfilled desires.

    So, is it right to say that ParAShakti spurred the action of the murderer upon his waking from deep sleep?

    A jIva's guNa-karma is a distorting filter to the light of the Self which can blunt the jIva's buddhi--intellect, and make him ignore his mana-sAkShi--conscience; and the mAyA of this world is the kaleidoscopic variety that entices a jIva under AvidyA--nescience.

    Quote Originally Posted by atanu View Post
    If karma or sin or avidya were real as Brahman and its Shakti is, the sin would not wash -- whatever. The real never can become unreal.
    I think

    • avidyA is an aspect of jIva to which he is attached, and mAyA is an aspect of Shakti which binds the jIva to the world because of his avidyA.

    • jIva's avidyA is due to his guNa-karma and is a jaDa--insentient, filter over the Self, and this avidyA is not real, though anirvachanIya--indescribable.

    • mAyA, as Shakti's power and lIlA, is the vyAvahArika satyam--operational/practical reality of the world (the reason why Shankara assigned the term mithyA for the reality of the world).

    • The jIva is steeped in avidyA on its own volition, but to come out of it, requires the grace and blessings of Shakti/Ishvara (which are two names for SaguNa Brahman).

    In our discussions in this thread, Shakti/ParAShakti has no gender where it stands for NirguNa Brahman, but in the tradition of shAkta worship, Shakti as SaguNa Brahman (IshvarI) is female. In both the roles, she is identical to Shiva, ViShNu, KRShNa or any other God perceived as both NirguNa and SaguNa Brahman. Essentially, therefore, Shakti's grace is Shiva's grace, ViShNu's grace and so on; her lIlA and power as mAya, are theirs as well.

    *****
    रत्नाकरधौतपदां हिमालयकिरीटिनीम् ।
    ब्रह्मराजर्षिररत्नाढ्यां वन्दे भारतमातरम् ॥

    To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.

    --viShNu purANam

  2. #72
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    Re: Different views of śakti or mAyA?

    Namaste Saidevoji

    Just one remark wrt the following:
    • avidyA is an aspect of jIva to which he is attached, and mAyA is an aspect of Shakti which binds the jIva to the world because of his avidyA.


    Sruti says that vidyAvidya (note that it is one) inheres in Brahman (brahma pare). But guna of the mind breaks it into various grades between pure avidya and pure vidya.

    Rest is just beautiful, and thus thanks are due to you, Saidevoji. I think the discussion on this thread is now adequately complete, unless Snip, the Mother of the thread, wishes to contribute more.

    Om Namah Shivaya
    Last edited by atanu; 04 September 2010 at 12:43 AM. Reason: spellings.
    That which is without letters (parts) is the Fourth, beyond apprehension through ordinary means, the cessation of the phenomenal world, the auspicious and the non-dual. Thus Om is certainly the Self. He who knows thus enters the Self by the Self.

  3. #73
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    Re: Different views of śakti or mAyA?

    Quote Originally Posted by atanu View Post

    Rest is just beautiful, and thus thanks are due to you, Saidevoji. I think the discussion on this thread is now adequately complete, unless Snip, the Mother of the thread, wishes to contribute more.

    Om Namah Shivaya
    Dear Atanu and Saidevo
    I am satisfied. Thank you!
    It has been most interesting and useful.

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