[Advaita-l] Can a jnAni engage himself in a prohibited act??

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 14 Jul 2010, V Subrahmanian wrote:

> It is not avatara, if you are in that impression.  He is a jiva, mukta, now
> taken a body, and after the expiry of the prArabdha karma will be finally
> liberated.  He will not have kartrutva / bhoktrutva bhaava then.
>
> For that matter, all jivas, when punarjanma is there, in avidyAvasthA, are
> said to be incarnating every time.  That is why they say 'Hinduism believes
> in re-incarnation.'   Vyasa's case is no different in as much as another
> body is taken and lived out.  The only difference is that in this case
> avidya / ajnana is not the cause of the new incarnation; it is the command
> of Ishwara.
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 8:43 AM, Br. Pranipata Chaitanya <
> pranipata at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
>> You said it yourself, in your own words....
>>
>> --------------------------------------------------
>> From: "V Subrahmanian" <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
>>
>>
>>> apAntaratamo nAma muniH kali-dvApara-sandhau vyAsatvena sambabhUva - a
>>> sage
>>> named 'apAntaratamas' incarnated in the confluence of Kali and dvApara
>>> yuga-s with the name / position of 'vyAsa'.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> incarnation is not reincarnation of jantus.
>>

Let us set aside the side-issue of the meaning of the English word 
"reincarnation".

The Rshi of Ishopanishad Dirghatamasa Gotama (Apantaratamasa is a synonym) 
was said to be blind.  This was possibly a result of some past karma of 
his.  When he was born as Vedavyasa, it was not an avatara of Dirghatamasa 
nor was it reincarnation in the normal sense (as a result of 
kartrtva/bhoktrtva) but only at Ishwaras command.  So neither can we call 
him a jivanmukta either.

The Vishnupurana mentions 28 Vedavyasas of different yuga-chakras of which 
the current Parasharya Vyasa is only one.  (To muddy the waters a bit, it 
and other puranas also mention Vyasa as an avatara of Vishnu Bhagavan 
which is not discussed in Brahmasutrabhashya.)

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>