Jeevanmukti and Advaita

[nanda chandran]

Vaidya questions :

>if the person realsises His essential "non-dual" nature, he
>is fully aware that HE ALONE EXISTS - rest all is only mAyA. However, there
>are teachers of advaita - if they have attained advaitic reaisation of
>ONENESS whom do they teach it to? if they have not realised, are they
>teaching what they do
>not fully understand?

Leaving alone Advaitic concepts, normally we identify ourselves
with our body. If we're hurt in any part of the body, the phrase,
"I'm hurt" is used and makes sense.

So when you're applying medicine to the hurt, does the question
"how do I apply medicine to myself", arise?

And please be clear that "Tat tvam asi", doesn't mean that you,
with your individuality is brahman. "I'm all there is", is
itself used in a relative sense only. Brahman is devoid of
individuality and that implies that to be brahman, all that we
can predicate of it of ourselves, with our individuality, has
to go. That's the reason the bhagavatpAda uses the term, "residue"
in dasashloki to indicate the Atman.

And there's no "rest" that's mAya. The duality that you perceive
in the empirical world is what's mAya. The "rest" exits and is
nothing but you in essence.

Think about this : What's that makes you think that the person
or object across you is different from you? Is it the notion
of yourself, being such a such a person, a distinct entity with
individuality that makes you differentiate between yourself and
the "rest"?

If so, who are you? That, you're not the body or mind can be proved
by Advaitic logic. So are you then something inside the body?
If so who or what are you? Do you know yourself? Ofcourse you don't,
else the mistaken identification with the mind-body-senses, with
individuality itself will not occur.

Use the "neti neti" as the benchmark - in discriminating between
yourself and the non-you. Even as you progress, there'll still be
you who will keep discriminating between yourself and the that
which is not you. And what's you today, a month from now, itself will be
split up into the you and the non-you as your powers of discrimination
improve.

But when's there going to be an actual YOU devoid of the non-you?

Only when all individuality has dissappeared - with no individuality who's
in bondage and who's to be liberated? So ultimately there'll
be no YOU - only brahman.

But this doesn't mean that you with your body and mind will also disappear!
It's only the *sense* of individuality, which distinguishes itself as an
independent entity, which through austerity and meditation, will be
dissolved. Without individuality, a jeevanmukta's work is like a non
existent teacher (as he is devoid of individuality)
teaching non existent pupils (as the students too are actually devoid
of individuality in truth).

So the *sense of individuality* is what's mAya. And to erase this is
what all the shAstrAs attempt.








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