[Advaita-l] Logic and shastra

[praveen.r.bhat at exgate.tek.com]

praNAm,

I'm replying with my basic viewpoint, others may have better answers.

Mahesh-ji wrote:
So, in effect, if I understand it right, the realized soul does not have as
association with his/her BMI and sees it as a "third person" entity, quite
different from who s/he is really is. Or in other words, there is no feeling
of ego, no sense of doership of any actions. The thoughts, feelings,
actions, reactions of the BMI are taking place but there is no feeling of
them being done by the realized person on his or her own. Is that correct?

praveen:
More or less, I would think so. But more than seeing as a "third person", my
understanding is that there's no individualization per se. As Ramakrishna
paramhamsa said, its difficult for a realized to come down to the level of
human ego (that individualizes) and interact. But then again, RP may not be
a good reference since he followed all paths there are and talked from
various angles at various times. I quote him since I know you to have read
him a lot. For that matter, Ramana is also said to have shed tears on
looking at Rama's or Krishna's photo. In short, the realized is brahmaN
(brahmavid brahmaiva bhavati) and has no participation/ownership in
feelings, etc. 


Mahesh-ji wrote:
But there are times when realized souls feel sorrow or yearnings. 

praveen: 
Not true. There is no individual soul principle for a realized, no
association whatsoever to say that there are sorrows. The feeling is seen in
the realized by the observers due to their shades of nescience.


Mahesh-ji wrote:
For example, Sri Ramakrishna after his realization was troubled emmensely at
being in the company of worldly people and yearned for true devotees to come
to him. 

praveen:
As I understand, the paramhamsa walked and taught various paths. He was
looking for satsanga to spread the knowledge he had. Personally, I don't
think his realization has anything to do with it. Same with Sw. Vivekananda.


There's something else that has been bothering me for long! I don't know why
anyone's realization should have anything to do with the world viewing
anything. Consider a person merged into the brahmaN. Merged, as in
figure-of-speech, but factually knowing/realizing that s/he's brahmaN. Why
should it change the onlooker's perspective of the realized. S/he was
brahmaN earlier too and now knows. So everything from the onlooker's
perspective should remain same.

I don't know if this has helped any.

shivam shaantam advaitam,
--praveen