[Advaita-l] Questions regarding Advaita Vedanta

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sun, Oct 3, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Murali S <muralivenkat67 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> On yet another note,V Subramanianji,please excuse me there seems to be some
> morbidity while we discuss Jnani and his pain.We all 'know' that a Jnani
> experiences pain,but shouldnt we be celebrating the Jnanis
> love,compassion,purity,self control,austerity,Grace etc?
>


Dear Murali,

The context of that discussion was to highlight the mechanics involved in
the experiencing of anything by the Jnani.  I agree with you that we should
be learning a lot from the Jnani's love, compassion, etc. Whenever occasion
demands to focus on these aspects we shall bring the specific instances to
the fore.  Even in the course of studying the mechanics of the Jnani's
experiencing pain, are we not also learning from the way he remains
unaffected, with the firm conviction that such pain is only for the anAtma,
body-apparatus, and not for the Self?  That is, in fact, a great lesson
Vedanta teaches thru such narratives.  Shankaracharya has said that the
sthitaprajna's behaviour/reaction/attitude in the face of opposites like
pain/pleasure, honour/dishonour, constitutes the sadhana for the aspirant.
So, even in these narratives we have specific, non-trivial, lessons to learn
from.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v