[Advaita-l] GYAnimAtra and the sthitapraGYa (was Re: FW: Avidya, Jnanis and SSS' views)

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- On Fri, 5/7/10, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

> In my opinion, if the Yajnavalkya
> case is resolved, things will be very
> clear about the mukta and jivanmukta as per the JVM. 
> Personally I do not
> see any problem here.  Sri Vidyaranya himself agrees
> that Yajnavalkya is an
> aparoksha jnani with the authoriity of being a Brahmavidya
> Acharya of the
> Upanishads. Nowhere he says that he is not a mukta, to

But VidyAraNya unambiguously says that YAGYavalkya is NOT a jIvanmukta. Given that the discussion is about YAGYavalkya's state when he was disputing with others, we are talking about whether or not a living person has attained to mukti. If not jIvanmukti, what other "mukti" are we talking about?!

> return to samsara by
> rebirth.  Everyone understands by the term 'mukta'
> someone who has destroyed
> his avidya through samyag aparoksha jnana and freed himself

Let us consider the verse 267 of the VIvekachUDAmaNi, along with the commentary by H.H. Chandrasekhara Bharati MahaswamigaL (the verse is numbered 268 in HH's commentary):

  GYAte vastunyapi balavatI vAsanA.anAdireshhA .
  kartA bhoktApyahamiti dR^iDhA yA.asya sa.nsArahetuH ..
  pratyag.h dR^ishhTyA.atmani nivasatA sApaneyA prayatnAn.h .
  muktiM prAhustadiha munayo vAsanAtAnavaM yat.h ..267..

  "Even after the Truth has been known, impressions such as
  I-am-the-doer and I-am-the-experiencer, the cause of saMsAra,
  remain strong. This has to be removed by steady abidance in
  the Self.
  The attenuation of vAsanAs is called mukti by the Sages."
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^


HH begins His commentary with:

  vastuni Atmani GYAtepi...

  "Having known the Truth that is the Self..."

So there is no doubt that the verse is talking about a state AFTER AtmaGYAna has been achieved, as HH Himself takes it to be the case.

Note the last line of the above verse is "muktiM prAhustadiha munayo vAsanAtAnavaM yat.h", where mukti is defined as the accomplishment of vAsanAkShaya AFTER THE ATTAINMENT OF ATMAGYANA!! You cannot ask for a more explicit statement about mukti and vAsanAkShaya after AtmaGYAna (the verse refers to "mukti", NOT JIVANMUKTI).

    *** MUKTI REQUIRES THE ELIMINATION OF VASANAS!! ***


HH continues:

  ataH BrahmAtmanA saMsthitiH apramAdena saMsthitiH muktiriti
  dR^iDhatama-sAdhanachatushhTaya-saMpattiM vinA janmAntara
  sukR^itavashAt.h brahmavidopi vAsanAkshaya-manonAshArthaM
  prayatnaH nirantara-samAdhirUpaH Avashyaka evetyuktaM bhavati .

  "Therefore, steady abidance in Brahman is known as mukti.
  ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  That Brahmavit (knower of Brahman), who has attained to his
  state by infirm qualifications (dR^iDhatama-sAdhanachatushhTaya-
  saMpattiM vinA) and past merits must make effort (prayatnaH)
  in vAsanAkshaya-manonAsha by means of uninterrupted samAdhi."


HH Himself writes that "prayatnaH" (EFFORT) is REQUIRED AFTER ATMA-GYANA by an akR^itopAsti (dR^iDhatama-sAdhanachatushhTaya-saMpattiM vinA) to attain MUKTI (again, note that he does not say "jIvanmukti", but just "mukti").

I cannot say more than this! I believe I have said enough! But for one last time:

    *** Mukti implies the elimination of VAsanAs after BrahmaGYAna. ***

Regards,
Kartik

> from the cycle
> of birth and death. The question of jivanmukti and the
> degrees (types) in
> jivanmukta comes only after this bottom line.  Sri
> Vidyaranya only cites
> that case to show that the absence of vk and mn does not
> make Yajnavalkya a
> 'jivanmukta' of the JMV specification.
> 

[..]