Some Q & A

Iam posting the posts by Rajit ji, in the forum.

These are some questions which were put to Swamiji, and He kindly answered them. Though these are being posted   under the topic Vedanta, occasional references are made to other darshanas also.
1. Firstly as far as I understood, in Advaita there is a Sat, Asat and Mithya.Now theMandukya karikas does not seem to differentiate between the last two. In the Bhasya of the karika also it seems as if Bhagavan Bhasyakar is not differentiating between Asat and MithyaHowver later Advaitins were bent on proving that Mithya and asat are different.Almost 75% of advaita siddhi is dedicating to defending the mithya position against the dualists. Specifically does the karika believe that the world is asat or mithya?
answer: Iam not sure, are you sure ?  because if so, then how did the association of sat and asat happen. and how will it go. it will be very complicated to explain advaita. and alatashanti itself means this mitya.
2.What is the difference between Shivadvaitabada ,Shaktadvaitabada and Advaita.? Is avidya of advaita the shakti inthis sysytem?Then why on earth should one worship avidya(which is not Ishwara) as the Divine mother? If Saguna Brahman of Advaita is Shakti then who is Shiva ?
answer :even for argument sake, if we accept, shakti to be avidya, it is ofthe shiva, and the shakti and shaktiman (weilder of power) are notdifferrent. therefore, worshipint the power means worshipping the shiva. and, they accept anava, karma, maya malas too. and these malasare synonymous to our avidya.
3.What is the difference between Hiranygarbha and Saguna Brahman?As far as I have understood the former is aJiva.But Bhagavan Bhasykara does not seem to differentiate between them in some places of His Brahmasutra Bhasya
answer:hiranyagarbha and saguna brahman are not differrent. both are jiva,in the sense, they are both created. this is what is accepted in yogawhen it is said, vishesha purusha ishwara.
4.Can there be liberation (in advaita) for a person who has not done Shravana etc, by simple Bhakti and through the grace of Ishwara? Or is the highest phala of bhakti is lokprapti?
answer:ofcourse bhakti will lead one to moksha. but the culmination ofbhakti will be to see who is the bhakta and what is the one he/sheworships, and this knowledge will be invariably be given to him by the iswara, directly or mostly thro a guru. this is what is said bykrishna, ananyas chintayanto mam. and bhagavan bhashyakara also saysthe same thing in the bs bhashya, but he attaches a string saying, that it happens very rarely to only some. if it does not end in knowledge itwill be giving the result of lokaprapti.