[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 4 (Scriptural References)

[Amuthan]

namo nArAyaNAya!

dear shrI vidyAsha~Nkar sundareshan,

On 2/1/07, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar_at_hotmail.com> wrote:
> One should also view these statements about "Self-knowledge alone" in the
> context that every human being already always knows his self, in some way.
> Every cognition, even the most mundane, begins with cognizing oneself.
> Nevertheless, there is also ignorance which stands in the way of one's truly
> knowing the real self. Therefore, merely becoming a sannyAsin is not enough,
> without developing the means towards stabilizing and becoming firmly
> entrenched in brahmavidyA.

what you are saying is true for one who is not a j~nAni. but this
doesn't exactly fit into the context of the present discussion.

the knowledge of the form 'i exist' exists only in the waking and
dream states and is common to all conscious beings from animals to
humans. though this is a knowledge regarding oneself, this is not the
'self knowledge' that is being discussed in the present context.
aparokSha Atmaj~nAna is best understood as the knowledge present when
the mind remains in AtmAkAra vRtti. a j~nAnimAtra is one who has
experienced this, but for whom vAsanAs are not fully destroyed.
accordingly, bhAShyAs like 'samyag j~nAna prAptAvapi...' are better
interpreted as pertaining to a j~nAnimAtra than for a saMnyAsin who
just has the common knowledge of the form 'i exist'. moreover, if the
knowledge of the form 'i exist' qualifies for self knowledge, there
would be no necessity to explicitly state 'prAptAvapi' since it is
ever present and everyone knows it.

vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmRtaH.