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

[Bhaskar YR]

Humble sAshtAnga praNAms Sri Vidya prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Sri Vidya prabhuji :
Please let us not make this into a discussion along the lines you suggest.

bhaskar :

I am sorry prabhuji. Since the topic is about 'jnAni' lakshaNa, I tempted 
to write something on definition & description of the jnAni.  If your 
goodself think that it is a digression from the main question, my sincere 
apologies & you can ignore my mail as irrelevant prabhuji. 

Sri Vidya prabhuji :
 
Rajaram asked for a definition of jnAnI and I pointed out that it may be
useful to think of the word description, rather than the word definition.
This was said with a view to be helpful. It is unnecessary, in my opinion,
to speculate whether a definition holds good only on paper or otherwise.

bhaskar :

My speculation, IMHO, has a valid base in my (mis)understanding of the 
advaita vedanta as has been seen here prabhuji. 

Sri Vidya prabhuji:

If you think that the definition holds good only on paper, then you have
given up the advaita stance. 

bhaskar :

No prabhuji, that is not my stance, I am an inflexible believer that 
shruti siddhAnta i.e. ekamevAdviteeyatva of brahman has to be the sole 
reality & that will be literally 'experienced' (for want of better word) 
by the brahmajnAni. 

Sri Vidya prabhuji:

If you think that others within the traditional circles of advaita hold 
that the definiton holds good only on paper, then you are accusing them of 
giving up the basic advaita stance. Please check whether you are 
representing or understanding these others correctly. It is possible, to 
hold that the definition is worth a lot more than being
good "only on paper" and still have a different view from yours about the 
matter.

bhaskar :

I dare not to question the traditional stand here prabhuji.  But kindly 
allow me to submit what I understood (or misunderstood) about jnAni here 
from the list discussion :

First of all, shruti/shankara says jnAni is nothing but brahman and he is 
brahman only (brahmaiva bhavati..emphasis is very clear here).  So, what 
is this brahman that jnAni would become??  brahman is satyaM, jnAnam and 
anantaM, but we are seeing the jnAni-s in panchabhUtAtmaka deha so jnAni 
who is brahman cannot be ashareeri,  paricchinna chaitanya so he cannot be 
paripUrNa ananta chaitanya, we have seen in jnAni-s also sometime avidyA 
lesha due to which he may suffer from digbhrAnti, he may sometime gets 
angry and sometimes he may even listen to the demands of ajnAni-s and 
fulfil their demand though it is illegitimate (like kashyapa brahma failed 
to convince his wife), so he cannot be satyasya satya like brahman & he 
may not be satya svarUpa!! and shruti asserts this brahman is dehAteeta, 
kAlAteeta, nishkriya, nirvikAri, nishkalanka, niravayava but we have seen 
the examples of some jnAni-s by doing saMsAra getting the children and 
leading the normal life like any other ordinary saMsAri and they are doing 
'all' sorts of kriya due to prArabdha or whatever the reason..So, noway, 
we could match the brahma of shruti with brahma jnAni who is nothing but 
brahman.  The shruti pratipAdita brahma can exist only in the books & it 
has to sit aloof from even absolute brahma jnAni.   So, in all probability 
& sadly shruti's declaration 'brahmavit brahmaiva bhavati'  is reality 
ONLY on paper and it is practically  impossible to see the shruti brahman 
in the brahma jnAni, who is shruti interestingly saying NOTHING but that 
absolute brahman!! 

Kindly pardon me if I troubled you with my stupid thinking prabhuji.

Your humble servant
Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar