Jivan mukti and Advaita

[Ravi]

---------- Forwarded message from
Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy at morgan.ucs.mun.ca>
----------

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For posting in advaita-L in thread Jivan Mukti and Advaita
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My understanding is the same as Shri jaladhar's "as far as advaita
is concerned, jivanmukta is essential". Another way to put it is:
the only way moksha can be attained is as a jivanmukta.

My understanding is as follows:

1. Moksha is only through jnAnam, not by any other way. JnAnam can
   only be through human life form, not by any other way. Thus, human
   life-form is the only way for moksha. Except in the very rare situation
   that on removal of ignorance, body is also discarded, jivanmukta would
   be the state the embodiment finds itself in.

2. Moksha is when the karma does not attach to the embodiment anymore
   after the sanchita karma is exhausted. Karma can be exhausted (and
   also accumulated) only in human life-form and not in other life forms.
   This again leads to jivanmukta

3. Jeevas or life-forms that attain swarga loka get back to human or
   other life forms before "the journey" is complete. The "release" is
   only through jivanmukti. The only alternative to jivanmukti is the
   dropping of the gross body at the same time as the veil of ignorance
   is dropped, but that would be a rare coincidence.

4. It was mentioned earlier on this List that jeevas that attain brahma
   loka do merge with Brahman at praLaya. But that is not what I read
   (I think in BrahmasUtrAbhAshhya). The jeevas that attain Brahma loka
   do stay in that state and abode until praLaya. During the praLaya
   interlude, the seed will be retained and that will be the seed for
   life-form in the next yuga. I can dig out the proper reference. But
   the point of interest in the present context is: the final end-point
   for the "journey" of the jeeva or any life-form is through jivanmukta.

5. The end of the "journey" cannot take place without a gross body.
   Karma cannot be exhausted by the subtle body by itself without the
   subtle body being associated with a gross body. If that were possible,
   i.e.  if, during the intervening period between the subtle body leaving
   one physical body and taking up another physical body, some karma can
   be exhausted, that would be against the understanding of karma. Karma
   exhaustion has to be properly accounted for. That means a physical
   embodiment is required for exhaustion of karma.

All these lead to the conclusion that jivanmukta is essential for moksha.
All the above may give the impression that human life-form is put on a
highly elevated state. That has to be looked in the context that (i) it
is the humans that are covered by ignorance and know (eventually) that
they are covered by ignorance, (ii) it is the humans that are seriously
afflicted with the disease of the ego, and any cure of that disease will
certainly present itself.

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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--
bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam

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