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Re: Adi Sankara's koodu vittu koodu paaithal

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raghunath govindachari • November 3, 1995 


> 1. If Srimath Bagwath Geetha was accepted by Adi Sankara, then how can he
> belive that an aatman or soul can carry experience from one body to another.
[...]
> The question in my mind was, is there any other explanation possible to this.
> 
Yes. The Jivatman or individual spirit soul as the westerners call it, is
 unborn, the eternal individual being, unmanifest (akshara). 

The manifested being (kshara) takes on various instruments including the body
 to experience the world. These instruments corresponding to different planes of
consciousness are:
Annamaya and Pranamaya Purusha	constituting the gross body

Manomaya purusha forming subtle body that includes the antakaranas (literally
inner instruments).

Trans-body experiences including after-death or extraordinary feats like
Adi sankaracharyas are possible because the subtle body remains intact
beyond the death/abadoning of physical body.  

>. If an aatman should go in for
> pursuit of materilistic experiences through "koodu vittu koodu paaythal" then
> it certainly was not in that "zero" or "neutral" state srimath bagwath geetha
> was explaining. then what was the "state" of that aatman at the instant of
> such pursuit ?
> If the aatman doesnot have that "neutral" state without any "attributes" does 
> it contradict the whole advaitin theory ?
> 

In the bhagavad gita prakriti is classified into Lower (apara) and higher (para)
prakriti. It is the lower prakriti which creates these instruments for the
 individual soul to experience the world. Para prakriti also called Para
 shakti is the energy or power of the Lord and causes the manifestaion of the
 world as well as the individual jivas (purushas) as sparks or reflections or
 whatever of the One Lord (Parama Purusha) .

So what we call as swabhava is nothing but collection of experiences over
 several births giving  a sense of orientation and proportion to the three
gunas in each individual.

Soul is Iswara, Lord over (lower) Prakriti according to BG. As the soul is 
above lower nature, it is beyond the three  gunas.

The confusion regarding the state of the atman is
due to confusing the manomaya purusha with the unborn soul.

Raghu