[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 2 (The Case of YAGYavalkya)

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

praNAms Sri Kartik Jayaraman prabhuji
Hare Krishna

KJ prabhuji:

Let's consider the differences between these two (call them 'G' for
GYAnI and 'S' for Scholar) that have been discussed so far in the
series:

bhaskar :

Prabhuji, thanks for the clarification.  But kindly note that I am not
asking you the difference between jnAni & ajnAni (scholars)...But I wanted
to know what would be the yardstick that we can use to assess the status of
jnAna of a brahmajnAni to make him distinct from ordinary scholarly ajnAni
& jIvan mukta or brahmavit in absolute sense...

KJ prabhuji :

1) G has saMyak-GYAna. S doesn't.

saMyak-GYAna is "Perfect knowledge". In the snake-rope analogy,
saMyak-GYAna is seeing rope-as-rope. S instead has mithyA-GYAna which
is seeing rope-as-snake.

bhaskar :

Agreed...but this same rule can be applied to brahmajnAni also who has not
yet realized the ultimate!!!  Every vEdAntic scholar in advaita knows how
to deal with snake & rope analogy, in which context this has been used etc.
& can talk hours together why snake is adhyArOpita on rope & why rope is
the ultimate reality of *snake* etc. (like we did somany times earlier in
this list :-)).. But if at all we consider difference between brahmajnAni &
scholar, the problem of this mithyA gyAna is same to both of them is it
not??


KJ prabhuji:

2) G has aparoksha-GYAna. S doesn't.

aparoksha-GYAna is seeing Brahman *with no mediacy* -- meaning not
merely through book-learning or hearing, but directly. S in contrast
has only paroksha-GYAna.

bhaskar :

Yes again agreed...but still my above problem remains..

> From my understanding, it is like saying, since our
> advaita
> AchArya Sri VidyAraNya saying that there is difference between
> these two,
> we have to accept it....I hope that would not be the case &  Sri
> Karthik
> prabhuji will address these issues in detail in his subsequent
> posts by
> providing logical answers with proper supportings from shruti-s...
>

KJ prabhuji:

AFAIK, there is a smR^iti quote from Apastamba dharma sUtra
2.9.21.13-16 that distinguishes AtmaGYAna from mukti, which I will
get to in a later posting in the series.

bhaskar :

Kindly do that prabhuji.. I dont have the text of this dharma sUtra...Even
Sri Vidya prabhuji too had said earlier that there is a difference between
sadyO mukti & jIvan mukti.(I dont know whether shankara anywhere takes this
topic exclusively)..but still the difference is not clear to me especially
when compared the knowledge status of a brahmajnAni (NOT jIvan mukta/sadyo
mukta) with that of an ordinary vEdic scholar.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar