[Advaita-l] The "Royal Way"

[M. S. Ravisankar]

> > 3) shruti such as "tatra ko mohaH ka shoka ekatvamanupashyata" goes
> > squarely
> > against it.
> >
> > 4) shankara too says that nothing comes in between brahma-jnAna and
> > moxa in
> > BSB (while commenting on samanvayaadhikaraNam). You can read the
> > section in
> > IIT kanpur site. It ends with "... brahmavidyaanantaram moxam
> > darshyanto
> > madhye karyaantaram vaarayanti". I have put that section alone as an
> > image
> > file  http://www.ambaa.org/download/advaita/bsb1.jpg (Jaldhar, can we
> > create
> > place for members to share binary files rather than including them in
> > the
> > text of the message?). I think this by itself contradicts
> > Vidyaranya's
> > position.
> >
> > 5) I think the BuBh statemensts should be interpreted more
> > carefully** .
> > Otherwise I fear that avidya in advaita-vedAnta becomes quite real.
> >
>
> There are many ways to handle all the shruti and smriti objections that
> claim that GYAna alone results in mukti. But I cannot remember all of
> them. One way SV handles such objections is to say: the term
> "BrahmaGYAnI" sometimes refers synonymously to a sthitapraGYa (one in
> whom GYAna is firm), who is none other than a jIvanmukta. But this is
> not the case always.

I think it is one thing to say "j~nAna *alone* results in mukti" and it is
totally different thing to say that "perfect aparoxa brahma jnAna does not
result in immediate release". I may be wrong, but I think sthitapraj~nA
clause is quite external to the shruti statements and the shankara's quote
in #4. Besides, under the same topic, shankara says that after brahmajnAna
has dawned, there is no way dvaitaanubhava will come into play again. ( ...
na hi brahmaikatvavijnAnenonmathitasya dvaita vijn~nasya punaH sambhavo.asti
...)  Again I see here that one can invoke the sthitapraj~na argument for
this also. But it is still quite external to it.


My only concern with SV's position is, it  gives (more) reality to avidya
and it more in line with yoga.

In any case, since my knowledge is quite limited, I stop here. Any
additional thoughts/corrections  from you and others are welcome.


With best regards,

Ravi