[Advaita-l] Fwd: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 83, Issue 2

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Venkataramani prabhuji
Hare Krishna

*Bhaskar, I agree that there can be different definitiond of jnani based 
on
which stage he is on the jnana bhumi. I dont agree that the definition can
be based on prarabda karma. 

>  Though there is no difference in Atmaikatva jnAna, it can occupy 
different mind in different shape and according to this there will be 
gradation in Atma jnAni-s like brahmavidvara, bahmavidvarIya, 
brahmavidvarishTa etc. This is how some of the advaitins would say.  There 
will be a strong evidence for this in Sri VidyaraNya's jeevan mukti viveka 
which has been accepted widely as valid definition of jnAna-bhUmika-s in 
traditional circle. 

If such a position is admissible, there will be as many definitions of a 
jnani as there are jnanis as each one has has a unique prarabda karma. 

>  yes, according to some theory, some jnAni's dehendriya manObuddhi 
ahaMkAra would act differently at different point of time due to their 
prArabdha karma phala which is unavoidable & to be exhausted through 
'anubhOga'.

Also, the definition of jnani has to be based on sastras. Gita offers two 
definitions of a jnani -  nitya yukta eka bhakti: and vasudevam sarvam 
iti. In both cases, Madhusudana says that jnani has
bhakti. Sankara does not specifically that one who has attained vasudeva 
is
a bhakta but he does not say that a jnani transcends bhakti either. 

>  Advaita vedAnta does talk about bhakti which is slightly different from 
dvaita's 'bedha' bhakti.  Shankara calls it as parAbhakti which does not 
do any harm to shruti siddhAnta i.e. Atman's ekameva adviteeyatva 
(absolute non-duality).

I heard that Vidyaranya Swami says jivan mukta Hari bhakta. 

>  Interesting !!  may I know which work pls. can jnAni ( a jIvan mukta) 
be hara bhakta also??  appayya deekshita was great hara bhakta but I dont 
know whether he is considered as jeevan mukta !!??

Brahmananda, the disciple of Madhusudana, says that bhakti is his guru, a 
jivan mukta is the residual effect of bhakti done before attainment of 
realization. 

>  I did not get this!!  BTW, muktAvasta is not an (residual) effect of 
anything, it is ever existing natural state.  However, shastra helps us to 
realize this ever existent reality.

So, the definition of jnani (or types of jnani) remains a open question to 
me. If one wants to
be a jnani, either in this or a future life, one should know what a jnani 
is. *

>  IMO, one cannot become a jnAni by 'knowing' about the jnAni, one should 
intuitively realize this jnAna and when one realized, I sincerely hope 
he/she will not have any doubts about the definition of the jnAni :-))

*Agreed. But on realizing brahma satyam, does a jnani continue to devote 
to
the Lord? As mentioned above, Madhusudana and Sankara both say that in the
context of Bhagavad Gita.

>  yes, according to some, he would continue to devote to the lord or 
paripUrNa chaitanya as long as the  jnAni continues to 'live' in his body 
with paricchinna chaitanya...That is the reason why we have the great 
bhakta-s like dhruva, prahlAda etc.  But shankara somewhere in chAdOgya 
bhAshya says that after realization jnAni would realize that before Atma 
jnAna,  srushtyAdi kriya  was Ishwareccha but now (after realization) he, 
himself is WHOLE & SOLE... 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar