[Advaita-l] Re: More on Paurusha

[Viswanathan N]

Pranams Vidyashankarji
   
  Thanks a lot for such a clear and detailed explanations.
   
   Can I summarise this way....
   
  Mere reading scriptures wont lead to jnana unless you contemplate on what you learnt and experience it personally. 
   
  But even after becomming Jnani one need to attend certain worldy actions as long this body contine to exist. Isn't it sir? So,as you rightly said even while performing those actions 'the doer' shouldnt be present .
   
  Pranams once again
   
  Viswanath  
   
  

Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
  
> You are perfectly right in saying that the person performing karma 
>without desiring results/ out come is karmayogi. Fine, but this could only 
>lead to peaceful living in this birth without any further accumulation of 
>samskaras....
>

That is not quite true. The fact that one may do karma without desiring its 
results does not automatically mean that the results will not accrue nor 
that samskAras will not accumulate. So long as there is the notion of 
doership (I am the doer of this action), even if there is no overt desire 
for its results, the samskAras will accumulate.

> Acquiring the true Jnana is only the key for mukthi. I feel.

Again, no. See below.

> Combination of Jnana yoga and Karma yoga is the correct recipe for 
>liberation. Rather the movement you know the truth you automatically become 
>a Karmayogi.
>

This is precisely the kind of confusion that is discussed again and again, 
and clarified very lucidly in the bhAshyas and the vArttikas. You do not 
become a karmayogi AFTER acquiring jnAna. For one thing, acquiring jnAna is 
not all that easy. For another, being a karmayogi is a step along the way to 
acquire jnAna. As a third, when you acquire jnAna, you will renounce all 
karma, if you have not already renounced karma as a means to acquire jnAna.

The ability to think and talk and discuss philosophy does not make one a 
jnAna yogi.

> What is acquired by reading/ listening to the scriptures can only 
>amount to mere accumulation of knowledge and may not result in true Jnana, 
>unless one continuously contemplate on the same and experience the truth by 
>oneself. The acquired knowledge can only be 'means' and not the 'End' by 
>itself.
>

The question is, what do you mean by knowledge, and what do you mean by 
"mere accumulation of knowledge"? What you are referring to in terms of 
contemplation and experience is manana-nididhyAsana as a means to 
Atma-darSana. These are well recognized. However, you can only contemplate 
upon knowledge that is already acquired; you cannot contemplate upon an 
unknown. And when one experiences the truth, that truth is also not 
something new or subject to one's experience of it.

Experiencing the truth is in any case not achieved by becoming a karmayogi, 
nor is becoming a karmayogi an event after acquiring jnAna. Rather, being a 
karmayogi should occur much earlier in the process and is a prerequisite to 
acquire the jnAna in the first place. If someone has read "aham brahmAsmi" 
and can therefore be said to have acquired that jnAna, then by that token, 
everybody is a jnAni. Rather, truly acquiring the jnAna is synonymous with 
experiencing the truth oneself.

Now, one can talk of those whose darSana is firm and strong vis-a-vis those 
for whom the darSana is weak, which is what leads to all the discussion 
about jIvanmukti, the place and need for yoga, gradations among brahmajnAnis 
etc. But that should not be confused with the clear sequence of karma and 
jnAna, and it should not lead to any notions of a need to combine karma and 
jnAna.

Regards,
Vidyasankar

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