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Re: A Question

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A.Bharat • April 14, 2000 


Dear BhAgavatOttamas

Re the seemingly unanswerable riddle posed by
Sri L.kumar,the following information could
perhaps be helpful.

The immanence as well as transcendence of the Lord
is undisputable,and is vouched for by all the PramANas.
AzhwAr says in unmistakeable terms,"He is as comfortably
inhabiting the most minute being as if it were as
spacious as the Universe."(1.1.10); "He is inside my soul
as well as my body"(8.8.2).

The question is- how? Since the JIvAtma itself is ANu
and by defenition the smallest particle and indivisible
 to boot-how could BhagavAn get in and out? The Sruti says
again,"He created it and ENTERED it through the medium
of the JIvAtmA." So He is somehow inside.But doesn't
the Sruti itself call Him,"ANoraNIyAn mahato mahIyAn"?
So notwithstanding the defenition of ANu,He is more
subtle than that and hence can enter even the ANU.
But this explanation doesn't satisfy us.
The whole thing appears totally confusing and illogical.
But does it really?

In an absolutely magnificent passage brimming with humor
 in SrI VEdArtha Sangraha, Swami EmberumAnAr declares 
in the grand manner,"AsmAkam kim na sEtsyati?"- with
the arsenal at our command,whom can we not conquer,
what can we not prove? And the most potent weapon in
the arsenal (in that passage as well for the present
riddle) is our knowledge of the Nature of Brahman and
Atman.The simple answer is that-both have GnAna as
swarUpa as well as quality;except that for Brahma both
are infinite,whereas for Atman(in his free state) only the
quality is infinite.So since both swarUpas are constituted
not of unbreakable physical matter but GnAna only and
since the GnAna as quality is no different in texture there is
no difficulty in perceiving that Brahma's entering the
JIva to sustain him ;as well His  control thro His Sankalpa;
are all done by means of His Dharma-bhUta-GnAna only.
It is something like light entering another light.
What difficulty could there
be in undertanding this phenomenon for the disciples
(however far removed) of Sri BhAshyakArar?

Sri EmberumAnar TiruvaDigaLE SaraNam!


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