[Advaita-l] Question on Mayavada

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Thank you Subramanianji for bringing in the story from Shrii Ramakrishna's life to illustrate the point. Yes, like Dhyana culminates in Samadhi so also Jivanmukti culminates in Videhamukti, when the prarabdha bhukti is completed (and no fresh Karmaphal is generated).

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya


--- On Wed, 11/3/10, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:

From: V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Question on Mayavada
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Wednesday, November 3, 2010, 6:49 PM

On Thu, Nov 4, 2010 at 1:04 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Vidyasankarji,
>
> Can we give the example of Vishwamitra to illustrate the difference between
> the Jivanmukti and Videhamukti? Vishwamitra, after he became a Brahmarshi,
> ie. after he became a jivanmukta (I guess we can call a Brahmajnani like
> Vishwamitra as Jivanmukta) could fall for Menaka shows that the Jivanmukta
> can be amukta at times, due to carelesness, till the Videhamukti is finally
> achieved. The period between the achievement of Jivanmukti and the
> Videhamukti is a period of vigilance for the Jivanmukta. Probably the
> Srividya helps one to get immunized from passion, the last of the great
> impediments in the spiritual journey. Any comment?
>
> Regards,
>
> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
>




In contemporary history, here is an incident reported by Swami Saradananda
in  'Sri Ramakrishna the Great Master':

(Quote) The Master: 'Ah, lust does not vanish till God is realized.  *So
long as the body lasts, a little of it continues even after realization but
then it cannot raise its head.*  Do you think I myself am altogether free
from it? At one time I thought I had conquered lust.  When I was sitting
under PanchavaTi such an onrush of lust came that it seemed to be beyond my
power of control.  I then wept rubbing my face against the dust on the
ground and said to Mother, ' I have done a great wrong, Mother.  I shall
never again harbour the idea that I have conquered lust.'  It was then only
it vanished.' (unquote)

While Srividya could be a method, Vedanta has a variety of methods to handle
any problem pertaining to vAsana-management.  The Jivanmuktiviveka of Swami
Vidyaranya is a work specializing on this topic.  The methods range from
Bhagavadbhakti to discrimination on the real-unreal, nitya-anitya, etc.

In Vedanta, videhamukti is not 'finally achieved'; the jivanmukti simply
dovetails into videhamukti.  The above work of Vidyaranya has a discussion
on the meaning(s) of videhamukti too.  We have discussed these in a thread
titled 'GyAnimAtra...' in this forum some months ago.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v
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