[Advaita-l] How can prANa be Brahman?

[Venkatraghavan S]

Namaste Sri Chandramouliji,

Yes, your post was very useful indeed. Thank you.

Another useful source of information is Swami Paramarthananda's 2015 Guru
Purnima talk which was a high level analysis of the text in question, Jivan
Mukti Viveka. I think several of these issues are touched upon.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan


On Fri, Sep 9, 2016 at 5:37 PM, H S Chandramouli <hschandramouli at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Namaste Sri Venkatraghavan Ji.
>
>
>
> Reg  << Shankaracharya does not say that the experience of sorrow or
> delusion by the mind itself is the cause of samsAra, but that the
> transposition (adhyAsa) of that experienced sorrow / delusion on to oneself
> by saying - I am sad, I am deluded etc - is the cause of samsAra. Therefore
> the eradication of mental sorrow or the begetting of mental happiness are
> not the aims of Vedanta - it is freedom from the notion that "I" am unhappy
> or deluded, and learning to say the mind is unhappy / deluded when such
> conditions arise in the mind. >>,
>
>
>
> Not exactly. The solution is twofold. One is to attain jnana. Remember
> this itself ensures ‘liberation from embodiment” and is considered “moksha”
> irrespective of  “learning to say the mind is unhappy / deluded when such
> conditions arise in the mind”. Reason being that on fall of the current
> embodiment at the time of death unhappiness/delusion is no longer
> experienced subsequently by the jiva. Infact this is the understanding one
> gets by studies of texts or listening to any of the teachers these days.
> The conclusion always reached is that after achieving jnana, “lived happily
> everafterwards”. Period.
>
>
>
> The second objective of “moksha” namely “freedom from bondage” which
> actually means “living happily everafterwards in this body itself”, and any
> further sAdhanAs needed to achieve the same are invariably not stressed at
> all. You can correct if I am wrong. It may also be pertinent to recall
> again here that this is not essential for “liberation from embodiment”.
> That is assured even without these additional sAdhanAs.
>
>
>
> Now reg  << That being the case, after the rise of jnAna, if due to
> prArabdha, the mind of the jnAni experiences sorrow or delusion, he does
> not transpose that sorrow or delusion on to himself.>>.
>
>
>
> Well not exactly again. Swami Vidyaranya says that this is consistently
> true only for a brief time after jnana. Subsequently it is intermittent. I
> have referred to it in  my earlier post on this issue. I will avoid
> repeating it again with your permission.
>
>
>
> Reg  << On the other hand, the role that vAsanAkshaya / manonAsha plays
> is in training the mind to limit the negative reaction to external
> circumstances, which reaction manifests itself as sorrow / delusion>>,
>
>
>
> manonAsha essentially refers to chitta ekAgratha meaning avoiding
> manovritti modifications in accordance with external objects and  vAsanAkshaya
> essentially refers to  avoiding manovritti modifications due to internal
> latent mental impressions. Thus  vAsanAkshaya / manonAsha together help
> avoid manovritti modifications for any reason whatsoever, internal or
> external, thereby enabling the mind to be concentrated constantly without
> interruption on Brahman alone. This leads to "freedom from bondage"
> enabling the sAdhaka to "live happily everafterwards in this body itself".
> This is a very brief explanation and I have broughtout only the main point
> according to my understanding. Lot of finer issues are involved. For
> detailed analysis I am afraid we need to refer to the text itself.
>
>
>
> I hope I have covered all the points and this is of  some use at least in
> clarifying the issue.
>
>
>
> Regards
>
>
>
>
>
>