[Advaita-l] GunAtIta and jIvanmukta

[Venkatraghavan S]

Well, that's excellent :)

What I meant to say was that the primary tAtparya of vedanta was "spiritual
liberation" defined as the freedom from the attribution of the mental
states to ones' self, in contrast to "mental liberation" defined as mental
equanimity, freedom from the experience of sorrow, fear, desire, hatred,
anger, greed etc.

I thought you were equating jIvanmukti with spiritual liberation + mental
liberation. Therefore, I interpreted the statement "jIvanmukti is the
highest goal to be sought" to mean that the quest for mental liberation, in
addition to spiritual liberation, is the highest goal. Please correct me if
I have misunderstood.

Mental liberation is certainly worth seeking, but it is not the highest
goal of shAstra in my view. Why? Because it is not a goal - it is a life
long process - anAtma, being what it is, can never "become" perfect, one
can keep improving it throughout.

Regards,
Venkatraghavan

On Mon, Sep 12, 2016 at 11:00 AM, H S Chandramouli <hschandramouli at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Namaste Sri Venkatraghavan Ji.
>
>
>
> I have changed the title of  the thread while responding to your post in
> the other thread.
>
>
>
> Reg your observation  <<  I generally agree with Sri Chandramouliji's
> comments, but I differ slightly
> when he says that the state of the jIvanmukta is the highest goal to be
> sought after.>>,
>
>
>
> Please correct me if I am wrong. But what I understand from your post is
> that you believe GuNAtIta state to be the preferred goal. If yes, we are
> together again, right on  spot !!! Maybe I have not explained the state
> of a jIvanmukta satisfactorily. But Swami Vidyaranya states in his work
> Jivanmuktiviveka  tha  the terms jivanmukta, guNAtIta, sthitaprajna,
> bhagavdbhakta,brAhmana,ativarnAshrami, are all synonymous terms.  Detailed
> lakshanas of each of these is presented separately in the text JMV.  Infact
> he concludes,  I quote
>
>
>
> << तदेवम् विमुक्तश्च विमुच्यते इत्यादिश्रुतयो जीवन्मक्तस्थितप्रज्ञभगवद्भक्
> तगुणातीतब्राह्मणातिवर्णाश्रमिप्रतिपादकस्मृतिवाक्यानि चजीवन्मुक्तिसद्भावे
> प्रमाणानीति स्थितम्।  >>
>
>
>
> << (tadevam vimuktashcha vimuchyate ityAdishrutayo jIvanmaktasthitapraj~
> nabhagavadbhaktaguNAtItabrAhmaNAtivarNAshramipratipAdakasmRRitivAkyAni
> chajIvanmuktisadbhAve pramANAnIti sthitam|) >>
>
>
>
> (translation by Swami Harshananda and Dr Ramachandra Swamy) <<(In this
> way, through scriptural texts such as “the once liberated (from the dormant
> desires ) is liberated again” and (through the) smriti texts demonstrating
> the jivanmukta,sthitaprajna,bhagavdbhakta, gunAtIta, brAhmana, and
> ativarnAshrami—it is conclusively proved that jivanmukti is a reality) >>.
>
>
>
>
> Regards
>