[Advaita-l] The liberated soul...

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 22 Mar 2004, Kiran B R wrote:

> That the task/office is divine both irrelevant and not
> mentioned in the sutra. That there IS a task is the
> only thing of relevance, and the only thing mentioned
> in the sutra. I would come, if at all, to eat juicy
> jilebis!
>
> ...and? Can this guy be seen playing
> "charioteer-charioteer" in wars or not? Or yeah, can
> this guy be seen eating juicy jilebis or not?
>
> Cheers
> Kiran
>

Kiran I know you come from a different philosophical perspective but from
the point of view of Advaita Vedanta this is a total non sequitur.  We
know from e.g. anandamimamsa portion of taittereyopanishad that the bliss
of Brahman is far, far, beyond any mundane delight -- even the juiciest
jalebi!  As a baby you may have inadvertantly eaten an ant.  Little babies
don't think, they just automatically put things in their mouths.  But have
you put an ant in your mouth lately?  In fact doesn't the very thought
horrify you?  The way you feel about ants is how a jnani feels about
jalebi.

The word in the sutra is adhikara.  Adhikara implies a task and a
responsibility to fulfill that task.  It is this sense of responsibility
for performance of action which causes embodiment.  The other reason your
question makes no sense for the Advaitin is because there is actually no
jiva.  There is only brahman who due to maya and the resulting false
I-consciousness appears to be in distinct parts.  So there is no question
of there being floating "liberated" souls out there who decide on a whim
to eat jalebi or not.


-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/