> > According to Patanjali, the process of Yoga isolates > > the Purusha from the prakriti, using the Eightfold Path. > > Billy wrote: > Yes, but there is the Purusha immanent or manifest IN > creation, this is Brahm or the highest relative... > According to Patanjali, Ishvara is the inner controller, higher than even the subtlest relative. God Brahm is the Transcendental Person in the Upanishads, the Purusha, who is beyond this creation, that is, transcendental to the contituents of nature. What you have just described is a type of adwaitan illusionism which denies the 'personality' of God. You might consider this and avoid the error of thinking that God Brahm is just an illusion, a part and parcel of the relative. But in fact, God is the Transcendent Purusha in a Supreme Person - that's what 'God' means - a supreme person, the Ishvara of Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The argument that God is the highest of the relative is not a convincing argument. Badarayana, Ramanuja, Nimbarka, Madhva, and Vallabha all agree on this. Of all the Upanishadic thinkers, only Shankara places the Purusha among the relative illusions called Maya. Perhaps he was very impressed with the 'Appearance Only' theory of Shakya the Muni. Why do you suppose that Shankara was opposed by all the other Upanishadic philosophers, when in fact all the Upanishadic thinkers were transcendentalists?
Y.S. I. 24: 'klesa karma vipaka sayair aparam rstah purusa visesa isvarah' 'That unique indwelling omnipresence that is never tainted nor touched by the ground of actions and their reactions, which afflict ignorant individuals; that which is left-over after the ego-ignorance-collapse; that special inner ruler or intelligence which is unconditioned by time and whose will alone prevails even in the body. In it there is oneness, never divided. It is therefore beyond ignorance and its progeny.' Swami Venketesananda Saraswati on Patanjali's Yoga Sutras: http://www.dailyreadings.com/sutras_1.htm Maharishi with Swami Venkatesananda Saraswati: http://www.rwilliams.us/archives/images/vent.jpg > Yes, but there is the Purusha immanent or manifest IN > creation, this is Brahm or the highest relative (MMY > calls it God consciousness) and there is the Unmanifest > Brahman beyond creation, (MMY calls this Unity) his > reflection is IN creation as the *manifest* Purusha, it > can take any form but is essentially the foundation of > all manifest creation. > > Each Solar system has a solar deity or purusha which > animates that creation, we are a part of the Immanent > Purusha. The Unmanifest Brahman is the foundation of > ALL Solar systems and ALL Galaxies/Universes etc. Each > Purusha/Creator is limited by time and space. Brahman > is not! > > Scripture commonly conflates the immanent/manifest > Purusha and the Unmanifest Purusha or Brahman. That > makes three...OM or Prakriti, Tat the son Brahma or > creator, and Sat the Absolute Brahman. SAT-TAT-OM. > Maybe so, Billy.
