Re: nityatvam of jIva-s & paratvam of SrIman-nArAyaNa

From the Bhakti List Archives

• December 11, 2001


Dear bhAgawatas,

SrimAns Madhavakannan and Mani have already eloquently elaborated on 
this.  I would just like to share some of my thoughts.

This paradox probably is most difficult to resolve in dwaita, and 
probably most easily resolved in advaita.  Since we don't want to get 
into polemics (I am not even trained in that anyway), let's see the 
vishishtadwaitic explanation.  The solution here also is pretty 
convincing.

According to Vishistadwaita, Brahman is the only entity without a 
second (adviteeya), and the other things (tattvas) that we see around 
us like the prakrti, kAla, jIva are His eternal adornments (nithya 
sareeram) because of His divine will (sathya sankalpa).  So, Brahma-
swaroopam and Brahma-shareeram are both eternal, the latter being 
utterly dependent on the former.  So, the existence (and consequently 
the eternality) of the jIva is dependent on the will the Brahman.

So, to summarize, when we say that the jIva is eternal, it assumes in 
the first place that this is because of Brahman's divine will.  So, 
instead of posing a problem to Brahman's paratvam, it glorifies it.

adiyen, murali kadambi

--- In bhakti-list@y..., "tg_ram"  wrote:
> SrImate gOpAla-deSika-mahA-dESikAya nama:
> 
> Dear SrI-vaishNava-s
> 
> It is said that the jIva-s always existed from beginningless time.
> 
> How do we understand this correctly, in conjunction with the 
paratvam 
> of SrIman-nArAyaNa ?
> 
> Please be informed that this is a question asked in earnestness.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> aDiyEn Ramkumar rAmAnuja dAsan



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