[Advaita-l] Karma and reincarnation

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

You can find a very detailed discussion of these two topics in the
first paada of the third adhyaaya of the brahma suutra bhaa.sya of
"sa.mkara (BSB 3.1). You can also consult many places where "sa.mkara
refutes puurva miimaa.nsaa doctrines like ad.r.s.ta. ad.r.s.ta has
been discussed on the list a couple of times. Ravi has also posted
arguments on ad.r.s.ta, etc.,  from the tri"satii bhaa.sya. But BSB
3.1 is fairly comprehensive.

Even with the risk of seeming to giving gratuitous advice, I would
like to point out "sa.mkaras remark in his introduction to the third
adhyaaya.

tatra prathame taavatpaade pa~caagni-vidyaam-aa"sritya
sa.msaaragati-prabheda.h pradar"syate **vairaagya heto.h** - "tasmaat
jugupseta" iti ca ante "srava.naat.

There (in the third adhyaaya), in the first section, the knowledge of
the five fires is expounded to teach the various ways of birth and
death (samsaara), **in order to create dispassion** - This is
understood from hearing (in the "sruti) "Thus one should hate (the
cycle of birth and death)".

It is easy to lose sight of this small statement in the details that
follow (at least I did, when I read it first). The wealth of detail is
to turn the mind inward and not to get engrossed in the details
themselves. But if one already has faith that the cycle of birth and
death has to be overcome, all the details in this section are not
necessary for that person. So you will rarely see these in any other
text like the upade"sasaahasrii, etc - it is assumed that the student
has enough dispassion to desire self realization. The point is that
there is birth and death due to avidyaa. How this cycle of births
occurs *in vyavahaara* is not as interesting as uprooting the root
cause of vyavahaara itself.

Rama

On Fri, 23 Jul 2004 10:32:54 -0300 (ART), María Dickson
<mad574 at yahoo.com.ar> wrote:
> Dear respected members:
> I am very interested in learning more about karma and
> reincarnation. Could anybody recommend me a clear and
> good book (of the advaita vedanta tradition) about
> these subjects?
> Thank you all very very much.
> 
> María