[Advaita-l] RE: sadyomukti and jIvanmukti

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Kartik wrote:
> 
> >As far as I am aware, there is no reason for "strengthening of
> >knowledge" for a jIvanmukta, as the jIvanmukta is precisely one
> whose
> >knowledge is already strengthened.
> 
> That is what I thought too, till I read the bRhadAraNyaka bhAshya
> 1.4.7, 
> where SankarAcArya himself allows for the need to strengthen
> samyag-darSana 
> and counter prArabdha karman, after the rise of jnAna.

GYAna has risen, but that doesn't mean that the GYAnI is a jIvanmukta!

> After reading
> it, I 
> have come to the conclusion that right from the time of the
> bhAshyakAra, and 
> most probably from even before, an allowance has been made for both
> one who 
> needs no strengthening of jnAna and one who does need further
> sAdhana-s. 

Again, this strengthening of GYAna is NOT for a jIvanmukta. A
jIvanmukta is synonymous with a sthitapraGYa - one whose GYAna is
ALREADY strengthened.

> This also explains why some later authors in the tradition debate
> whether 
> there is or not any residual avidyA in the jIvanmukta.

I don't see Shankara advocating any effort for a jIvanmukta, he only
does so for a GYAnI. All jIvanmuktas are GYAnIs, but not all GYAnIs are
jIvanmuktas!

As for the residual avidyA in the jIvanmukta, it has been explained
well in the jIvanmuktiviveka (JMV) of svAmi vidyAraNya.

In other words, the sequence for attainment of jIvanmukti is:

Infirm GYAna -> Effort to strengthen GYAna -> jIvanmukti

> We may also
> compare 
> these two types with the vidvat sannyAsin and the vividishA
> sannyAsin.
> 

Also discussed in the JMV.

-Kartik


	
		
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