[Advaita-l] j~nAna, aj~nAna and sarvaj~natvam

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Fri, Aug 12, 2011 at 2:56 AM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>wrote:

>
>
> In a way, as per the adhyAsa bhAshyam, vishesha vijnAna itself is due to
> avidya. Only because there is the ajnAna 'I am a pramAtaa, knower' there
> extend the other ajnAna-s of knowing and knowledge. The shruti quoted by
> Shankara elsewhere is: yatra hi dvaitamiva bhavati, taditara itaram
> pashyati..And when this dvaita adhyAsa has gone, 'yatra tvasya sarvam
> Atmaiva abhUt tat kena kam pashyet..'

I agree. My father explained it as follows. It is not that aparoksha-jnani
is sitting there thinking about all material subjects across time and space.
Ishwara is not doing that either because He is devoid of mind. Due to the
fact that Ishwara as well as Jnani are beyond maya, they are beyond
space and time. From that vantage point, they are said to know everything
though future is not totally deterministic, which poses a logical difficulty
in even knowledge of past, present and future leave alone generalized and
particularized knowledge of everything. To fulfill a specific function, they
particularize knowledge required from an empirical point of view.

In the highest stage of jivan mukti, I dont think the jiva exists in the
jivan mukta as he "merges" with Ishwara. In the fourth, fifth and the sixth,
I think the jiva exists because it is able to raise from samadhi. I am happy
to be corrected on these.