[Advaita-l] Taittiriya Upanishad question

[V Subrahmanian]

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 6:06 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Which Jnani has blamed the above act on his prArabdha?  Can you give one
> example?  Does the Prajapati's case talk of his blaming it on his
> praarabdha?
>
> >  Then what exactly is the reason for his untimely activity?? you have to
> tell me...


Every action of everyone, jnani or ajnani, happens only as a result of
praarabdha.  Outside the realm of prArabdha there is no action.  Only that
there is an element of free-will that the person exercises or not.  Why
should I tell you the reason for the untimely activity? The bhagavatam
episode is there for you too to analyze and conclude.



> Since you are attributing lot of things to the jnAni in the name
> of prArabdha karma, there will be no surprise if somebody thinks this
> activity also due to that karma.


I am not 'attributing a lot of things...'.  It is the shAstra, the Bhashya
that does so.



>  Since you yourself admitted that
> prArabdha karma can sways over jnAna & prompts jnAni to act with rAga
> -dvesha, I have every reason to believe that prajapati's act is due to his
> prArabdha..If it is because of some other reason do educate me.
>

Even this is not my 'admission'.  It is the shAstra siddhanta.  The
Jivanmukti viveka is a source book that deals with this topic extensively.


>
>
> *यान्यनवद्यानि कर्माणि । तानि
> सेवितव्यानि । नो इतराणि । यान्यस्माकं
> सुचरितानि । तानि त्वयोपास्यानि ।। नो
> इतराणि ।
>
> >  what sucharita one can practice & what blemishles/blameless deed one
> can practice if his/her guru doing some shAstra nishiddha work and asking
> his shishya to follow ONLY his upadesha and asking shishya to use his
> discrimination power for his own questionable activities!!??  have you not
> read vivekananda's 'pareeksha' on his guru?? And I dont have to tell you
> what shankara said in his geeta bhAshya on 'AcharaNa' of shreshTa-s. In
> Kannada there is a saying AchArave illada vichAra amedhyakke samAna.
>

All shAstra sentences should be understood in the light of the bigger
picture: whatever is said elsewhere is also to be taken to understand a
sentence said in one place.  This is the method of understanding the
shaastra.  Shankara has also said in the Sutrabhashya: सुनिपुणानामपि
सूक्ष्मापराधदर्शनात्. And the Bhagavatam teaching of 'dharmavyatikrama' by
Great personages also should be kept in mind.  The Kannada saying is not to
be understood the way you have:  It only means to say that any vichAra if it
has to be meaningful, must be based on Achaara as the baseline.  The
'evakAra' in that sentence conveys that.  If there is no achAra 'at all',
such a vichAra is worthless. Only because there is a possibility of even a
little durAchAra/anAchAra does the Taittiriya say so.  Swami Vivekananda was
a smoker and a meat-eater.  Not all his followers would try to emulate him
in this. This is because one cannot find a perfect person to the core in
this world. There was a Jnani called 'Brahma' who hailed from Punjab.  He
used to occasionally visit Sringeri and both the Acharyas Sri
Chandrashekhara Bharati Swamiji and Sri Abhinava VidyAtirtha swamiji had
recognized him.  He used to urinate standing and would buy fried eatables
like bhonda, etc. from roadside shops and even from Muslims' houses and eat.
These are not certainly 'Achaara' in Sringeri and that too for a Jnani. Yet,
the latter Acharya directed Sri Venkatasubba rao, a householder, to
associate with this Brahma for Jnana siddhi and he did get it. Surely he did
not imbibe the Guru's 'AchAra' but surely benefited by his vichAra.

Regards,
subrahmanian.v