[Advaita-l] About Moksha or Enlightenment

[Kripa Shankar]

Namaste Bhaskar, 

I just wanted to know if it is possible for an animal to get Moksha. I have no doubts regarding RM or the cow. 

At least in the  context of Advaita, mukti means Jivanmukti. Is it not? Shankara has clarified ‎that krama mukti is not Moksha/enlightenment/nirvana. Because otherwise, any random animal/bird/insect may go to shiva/vishnu lokA after death. Who knows? 

‎Hmm...amusing. So did lakshmi, the cow chant any Veda mantras? Or did it demonstrate any extraordinary faculty? Can we believe someone is a doctor just by his / her friend's testimony? 

So in that case manushya janma is not durlabha then. Because the path to enlightenment for a human is arduous. In contrast, a spiritual guru who can own pets will become durlabha. Just keep grazing on the grass whole day for a lifetime and get enlightenment in the end. What can possibly be more durlabha than this :D  'Just like professional doctors giving away sweets to 'un-diabetic' patients (?)' lol...whatever you meant by that....

You are partially right in the final part. Jnana cannot be gained but the obstacles for the jnAna to shine forth has to removed. As I understand ajnAna can be removed only through jnana (jiva-Brahma aikya). The source of this jnana (removal of ajnana) is the mahavAkyas. So a cow which cannot even speak can meditate on the mahavAkya and even realize that it is brahman. Sure, why not :D ‎

 ‎Regards 
Kripa 

yo vedAdau svaraH prokto vedAnte cha pratiShThitaH |
tasya prakRRiti-lInasya yaH parassa maheshvaraH || 
  Original Message  
From: Bhaskar YR
Sent: Tuesday 7 February 2017 4:13 PM
To: Kripa Shankar; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta; Venkata sriram P via Advaita-l
Subject: RE: [Advaita-l] About Moksha or Enlightenment

praNAms Sri Kripa prabhuji
Hare Krishna

I must say, you have hit the nail on the head. My doubt arised exactly because of Lakshmi, the cow who was apparently given enlightenment by the 'sheer grace' of RM.‎

> On the first hand you should not get this doubt because according to you RM himself not an enlightened one and how can an unenlightened person can give enlightenment to an animal :-) 

Because of such claims, I am trying to understand the basics, the pillars of Shastras once again. I too thought of gajendra but then it could have been just a mukti from the clutches of crocodile. But then again, Abinava Gupta is a very illustrious nam‎e to take things lightly. I am still somehow skeptical because the other conditions will not be valid. 

> we have plenty of episodes with regard to sAlOkya, sAyujya types of mukti-s in our purANa-s...And it has been achieved through the grace of the lord / Acharya and sometimes even remembering the lord's name at the time of death (in the case of ajamila :-) And so, mukti cannot be always interpreted in an absolute sense that is paramArtha jnana or Atmaikatva jnana. By the mere touch of paramahaMsa rAmakrishna, I was in trance and had strong feeling and experience that 'everything brahman, so says Swamy Vivekananda. 

For example, krishna doesn't explicitly say animals and birds. ‎It is just a commentary and commentaries don't enjoy a greater status in pramana. 

> yes, jantUnAm nara janmam durlabham, getting male body and braHmaNatva and inclination towards veda/ vedAnta / mOksha still difficult says viveka chUdAmaNi.. But buffalo chanted the veda mantra by the grace of jnana deva...so there are exceptions to this general rule : -) The cow Lakshmi at ramaNAshrama might be one of those exceptions...

Next is, it becomes apparent that enlightenment can be given by guru's will alone. So a question may arise, why doesn't gurus like RM give enlightenment to everyone in the world with compassion? 

> why Krishna taught bhagavad geeta only to arjuna when there are more eligible candidates were there on the battle ground?? If you know the answer to this question, you must know the answer to above question as well. 

We cannot argue that the students should be prepared / mature / ready because obviously, humans are better positioned than a cow, any given day. Another question props up - can enlightenment be distributed like sweets? 

> No, enlightenment cannot be distributed like sweets to 'diabetic' patients, those who have 'power' of good digestion and healthy un-diabetic body can have the 'sweets' like enlightenment under the careful guidance from the professional doctor :-) 

This also will go against what Adi Shankaracharya says that jnana alone is the cause for Moksha. He does not anywhere say that there are other ways to Moksha apart from jnana. He doesn't say Moksha can be attained either through jnana or Grace. 

> BTW, jnana cannot be given 'afresh' by even a jnAnanishTa guru to his shishya as it is (jnana) the svarUpa of both guru and shishya, guru can help his shishya to get rid of his ajnAna and the jnana illumines on its own (without any external force) when the cover of ajnAna is removed. And this cover of ajnAna is 'same' in all pashu-pakshi-manushya jaati. See shankara's adhyAsa bhAshya. 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar