[Advaita-l] The Four kinds of 'Mukti' compared with the 'Kaivalya' of Vedanta

[V Subrahmanian]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 7:29 AM, Kathirasan K <brahmasatyam at gmail.com>wrote:

> Namaste Subbu ji,
>
> I am looking for shruti references for the first category of people who
> qualify for Brahmaloka. Do you know of any?
>

Namaste Kathirasan ji,

The Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 6.2.15 speaks about those upAsaka-s who have
mastered the 'panchAgni vidyaa' detailed in the mantras preceding this one.
Here, in mantra 15 it is said that these upAsakas take a particular route to
finally land in Brahma loka. (kindly read the translation of the bhashya, in
case of need).   Interestingly, this Brahma loka is stated in plural!!  And
Bhagavatpada comments that there can be variations in Brahma Loka itself
depending upon the variations in the (efficiency) of the PanchAgni vidyA
upAsanaa itself.  So, that answers the question on the 'shruti reference'
for those who qualify to go to Brahma loka.

There are other upAsana-s (vidyA-s) too that have this end:  Ashwmedha
sacrifice combined with upAsana.  This is mentioned by Madhusudana Saraswati
in the Gita commentary of his for verse 8.16.  Another commentator, Gopala
Yati, says this while commenting on the bhashya for Kathopanishad 2.3.5.

So, there are certain vidya-s that are NOT Ishwara/God centric, that result
in Brahma loka praapti.

>
> On the other hand Shankara takes the view in the Chandgoya and
> Brhadaranyaka
> bhashya that those who gain brahmaloka but yet  to gain samyag jnana before
> pralaya will not return to earth. Instead they will return in the beginning
> of the next kalpa. Can this be also applied to the first category of people
> also?
>

Yes. In fact the first category people are indeed those who go to
Brahmaloka, stay there and return to earth.  It is only the second category
that gain the Atman Knowledge there and never return to samsara.  The
Brihadaranyaka 6.2.16 mentions, as you have said, that the first type people
return only after the present kalpa is over and the next kalpa commences.

In the light of this, what I stated in my original reply:

//  When pralaya takes place there will be no more brahma loka and* all
> the occupants will be mukta-s.*//

This position stands now corrected:  Only those who have gained Atma jnana
will be mukta-s but those upAsaka-s who have gone there for experiencing
their upAsana phalam (first category) will return to samsara, in the next
kalpa beginning.

I thank you for drawing my attention to this.

Best regards,
subbu

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