Re: Is God bound by his/her attribute?
hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namasté
Originally Posted by
smaranam
praNAm Yajvanji
First, I would like to understand how, say
1. all-attractiveness
2. all-auspiciousness
3. sweetness
4. kindness & generosity
bind the Supreme Lord, cause differentiation or put Him in a container if they are present in Him in infinite degree?
The BhAgvat defines the Supreme Lord, BhagvAn, is He who has the following six in infinite amounts:
1. wealth - Shri
2. fame - kIrti
3. strength - shakti
4. knowledge - jnana
5. beauty - lAvaNya
6. renunciation - vairAgya
He says elsewhere "I am the liquidity in water" etc.
How does that bind Him?
I thought to let a few days pass before answering this. The list above is quite apt and very useful. Yet from the point of view I offered that quantifying the supreme limits this Being in some way is what I wish to address here. It is not that the list is wrong or the list is not a noble and worthy view of the Supreme.
My point to offer ( not as a challange) is this supreme Being is so magnanimous It is not only infinite-and-all by nature , it too is finite by nature. This Being is not only the wonder of all positive qualities, but also the 'raw materials' of that which is small, confined and defined.
Why so ? Because by His nature he unfolds complete Creation in all its forms that is not apart (different) from HimSelf.
Within the śāṁkhya school this 'raw materials' is called out as 24 to 25 tattva-s; in kaśmiri śaivism we see 36, not to mention paramaśiva that goes beyond and within each of the 36 tattva-s. In vedānta we we would say it this way:
pūrṇamadhaḥ pūrṇamidaṁ ¹
that is full, this is full. Fullness comes from Fullness.
This is the notion... This Being is whole, complete full (pūrṇa). It is total and complete. When we give qualities to It we do the best we can, yet we also leave things out because we do not imcompass all thinking /all being / all knowing ourselves.
See the point of view being offered ? We always wish to understand this Being, so we do the best we can with the words we can come up with, yet we fall short when we try to quantify, because by definition the Being is beyond all quantification. So, our greatest śāstra-s try and help us get hold of the magnificence of this Being and give us the insight for our best comprehension. Yet it is our own śāstra-s that also inform us that this Being is nameless, and cannot be contained.
iti śivaṁ
1. the invocation we find as the śānti-pāṭha of the iśavāsya upaniṣad
Last edited by yajvan; 06 March 2013 at 07:25 PM.
यतसà¥à¤¤à¥à¤µà¤‚ शिवसमोऽसि
yatastvaṠśivasamo'si
because you are identical with śiva
_
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