[Advaita-l] jnAna-karma samuccaya

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Vidyasankarji,  

Any karma  of a  Jnani may appear to be work to the world but that is not karma at all. If the Jnanai perorms  any karma that cannot be called karma. The Lord said that renouncing the attachment to the fruit of karma, ever content and without dependence he does not do anything even though he is engaged in action. Even while eating food he knows that he is the food and also the eater (enjoyer) of food and that is "brahmavedanam".

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Tue, 11/16/10, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] jnAna-karma samuccaya
To: "Advaita List" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Tuesday, November 16, 2010, 6:39 AM


> 
> The Lord says that Adhyatmavidys is the highest of all vidyas and in chapter 10 he says that Dhyana or Meditation is higher than Jnana. 
> 

This does not mean jnAna-karma-samuccaya. This has been explained clearly by
Sankara bhagavatpAda in the bhAshya. The distinction lies in the following. The
true jnAna yogin attains the state of complete rest from action (naishkarmya) and
there is no possibility of combining karmA and jnAna here. The karma yogin is one
who is not in a position to give up karmA, but detaches himself from its results and
dedicates the performance of karmA to ISvara. Here also there is no combining of
karmA and jnAna, but the karmayogin knows there is something called the state of
jnAna, aspires to it and strives to first attain the cittaSuddhi that qualifies him or
her for jnAna.
 
In particular, it can never be said that karmA cannot be renounced or should not be
renounced on the path to jnAna. Indeed, somewhere along the line, as informed by
oneself and one's guru, karmA HAS to be renounced. That is the thrust of the advaita
argument against jnAna-karma samuccaya. As long as one is not ready for this very
rigorous renunciation, one is not truly on the path of jnAna yoga.
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar                            
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