vivekachUdAmani

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

>Harsha: Thank you for this gem. I will take the liberty to post on
other
>lists  and ask a question. In Yoga, they say that when Shakti Joins
>Shiva at Sahasarara, this union results in liberation, and at death
of the
>body the Prana exits through the Sahasarara resulting in Maha
Samadhi. The
>exit through the Sahasarara is meant to be a sign of the final Mukti.
>However, on the path of Jnana, the pranas do not exit but are
absorbed into
>the Heart that is the Self. How do we reconcile these two seemingly
>divergent explanations?

There is no reconciliation. While advaitins do not dispute that there
are experiences like nirvikalpa samAdhi or uniting kuNDalini with
shiva in the sahasrahAra etc, they explicitly deny that this is moxa.
moxa is obtained by GYAna alone. All empirical realities are
ultimately unreal. Therefore, things such as kuNDalini, etc are also
unreal (however not like a hares' horn).  Practices like these are a
_result_ of avidyA.  They cannot cancel out avidyA since they are not
directly opposed to it. But, GYAna is directly opposed to avidyA and
hence leads to moxa. So these _are_ divergent explanations and there
is _no_ reconciliation.

However, the usefulness of these practices as a preliminary to GYAna
is not denied.

Rama

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