[Advaita-l] (Advaita) Bhakti vs. Jnana

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

On 30 July 2011 23:16, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com> wrote:

> Apotheosis or final
> beautication in the form of atma jnana is not attained only through
> sravana,
> manana and nidhidhyasana is my understanding. Pl. correct me if I am wrong.
>

That's the basic misunderstanding I have been trying to point out all along.
The cause of bandha is avidyA and so the solution is j~nAna. j~nAna requires
a pramANa which in this case is in the form of the vedAnta shAstra alone
(specifically the mahAvAkya). So shravaNa is unavoidable.

It in this sense that an understanding of avidyA/aj~nAna as the cause of
bandha is so basic/fundamental/central to advaita-vedAnta. If this is
understood, the search really is for a *pramANa* that, when operated,
produces the j~nAna that can remove this aj~nAna.

In fact, the primary theme of the naiShkarmyasiddhi, which I quoted earlier,
is the central role of the vedAnta vAkya-s as a pramANa.

Not only is j~nAna (obtained through the mahAvAkya) the sole direct means to
mukti, nothing other than this j~nAna is required for mukti.

All the effort of the sAdhaka, starting with karmayoga and including even
manana-nidhidhyAsana, is really meant for creating the right mental
conditions for the vedAnta pramANa to operate.



>
> RV: I agree that naishkamya karma yoga is not essential pre-condition for
> jnana though it is helpful to attain citta suddhi.


Well, chittashuddhi is actually essential for the pramANa to operate, and
karmayoga in some form is the means to obtain chittashuddhi. In fact, all
opinions that I have encountered so far (among traditional AchArya-s)
indicate that karmayoga (of which there are many varieties) is the only
means to obtain chittashuddhi.