[Advaita-l] The liberated souls and Brahmaloka

[Ramesh Badisa]

Dear Vidya,
Namaste. Delighted to see your response. Thanks for the same. I have the 
copy of Swami Shivananda's writting on Brahma Sutras. I am sure that you 
have gone through "An Analysis of the Brahma Sutra by Swami Krishnananda at 
the same site.

Namaste
Babu

>From: "Vidyasankar Sundaresan" <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
>Reply-To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta 
><advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
>To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
>Subject: RE: [Advaita-l] The liberated souls and Brahmaloka
>Date: Tue, 09 Mar 2004 11:40:13 -0800
>
>Ramesh Badisa wrote:
>
>>As per your reply, the application of these sutras to liberated souls is
>>done before pralaya. However, these sutras are sequenced in the scripture
>>after mentioning of IV.3.10 sutra, giving a false idea that they are 
>>applied
>>after the pralaya. Therefore, my question was that it could have been much
>>more appropiate if the above sutras are sequenced before IV.3.10 sutra. 
>>This
>>way, it would be very clear that these sutras are associated with 
>>liberated
>>souls before pralaya.
>
>No. The sequential arrangement in the sUtras does not indicate temporal 
>sequence. Rather, it follows its own logic. Attaining brahmaloka is a 
>result of specific upAsana-s and is a step in the path of krama mukti. The 
>text first mentions the phala of upAsana, namely the attainment of 
>brahmaloka. Then it has to obviously mention the end of the path of krama 
>mukti, namely the final liberation at pralaya. This is necessary because of 
>the very nature of krama mukti. Without the assurance that there is a final 
>liberation, there is no guarantee to the sAdhaka that attaining brahmaloka 
>is the final step of krama mukti. If you notice, there is also a discussion 
>immediately following IV.3.10, on the nature of the upAsana that leads to 
>brahmaloka, i.e. meditation on saguNa brahman vis-a-vis meditation on a 
>symbol of brahman. Then it proceeds to describe the experience in 
>brahmaloka. This is a perfectly logical arrangement of topics. bAdarAyaNa 
>obviously has to describe the beginning (attainment of brahmaloka) and the 
>end (final liberation at pralaya) before describing what happens in between 
>(the attainment of all desires in brahmaloka, animating different bodies at 
>will etc.).
>
>By their very nature, sUtra-s are terse and aphoristic. It is difficult to 
>understand them without the help of the commentary. For a quick synopsis of 
>Sankaracharya's commentary, I would recommend checking 
>http://www.swami-krishnananda.org/bs_00.html - this site contains Swami 
>Sivananda's free translation/summary of the bhAshya.
>
>Vidyasankar
>
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