[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 5 (Other References)

[S Jayanarayanan]

Hi Jagan,

Responses to a couple of postings below.

--- jagannathan mahadevan <jagannathan.mahadevan at gmail.com> wrote:

[..]

> It may appear to be a tangential topic in what follows: I am trying
> to
> compare this experience of the self to the experience of love (love
> of
> god or another beloved; it does not matter). I am sure there are
> enough first accounts to vouch for the fact that people do fall in
> love at first instance. For instance, in the accounts of Ramana
> Maharishi's experiences, it is said that bhagavAn almost
> instantaneously felt a love for just the word "Arunachala," after
> hearing it incidentally from a visitor to his home, without even
> knowing what and where it was. Subsequently he set out for the
> place,
> which is also called Thiruvannamalai, and remained there until his
> samAdhi.
> 

It is interesting that VidyAraNya likens the sthitapraGYa's state to
that of a woman who, although outwardly involved in housework, is
completely absorbed in thinking about her lover. Whereas a GYAnimAtra
is likened to one who sometimes thinks of her lover, sometimes the
housework. The aGYAnI, of course, would be someone who is only
involved in the housework, and is not in love at all.

--- jagannathan mahadevan <jagannathan.mahadevan at gmail.com> wrote:

> In the quote from the Talks you had provided bhagavAn Ramana
> Maharishi
> seems to be calling the person who only has glimpses of the self as
> an
> "aGYAni."
> 
> Is this only a case of contextual usage? If bhagavAn were answering
> someone else would he then have referred to the person in the
> question
> as one with "unsteady GYAna"?
> 

In Bhagavan's usage, he uses a terminology that is different from
VidyAraNya:

Bhagavan <--> ViydAraNya

jnani  <--> sthitapraGYa
ajnani <--> aGYAnI
One who has a glimpse of the ultimate reality <--> GYAnimAtra

> Would the teaching tradition change or be misinterpreted if I were
> to
> call the "unsteady GYAna" as partial removal of vAsanAs?
> 

It would be correct to say that the unsteady GYAna is due to the
incomplete removal of vAsanAs, but the main point of the JMV is that
AtmaGYAna can be samyak (perfect), and aparoksha (direct), yet
asthitam (unsteady). This is the state of the GYAnimAtra, whom
Bhagavan refers to as "one who has a glimpse of the Self."

Regards,
Kartik


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Be a PS3 game guru.
Get your game face on with the latest PS3 news and previews at Yahoo! Games.
http://videogames.yahoo.com/platform?platform=120121