[Advaita-l] RE: sadyomukti and jIvanmukti

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

S Jayanarayanan <sjayana at yahoo.com> wrote:

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

Yes, if one uses the word jIvanmukti strictly, but no if the meaning is 
extended (as has been done during the course of this discussion) to also 
refer to different kinds of worshippers of saguNa brahman, particularly 
those who do not return to birth, but still have a further step of attaining 
brahmaloka before achieving full jnAna. I would like to apply the term 
jIvanmukti strictly myself, but recognize the difficulty in applying it thus 
when diverse texts are quoted (again, as has been done in this discussion).

Ramesh Badisa <badisa55 at hotmail.com> wrote:

>Badisa: Obviously, both 2 and 3 cannot be applied to the same person, as 
>was
>also indicated earlier. But, here we are looking two situations in two
>different sadhakas, and in that regard, it was clear that 2 is applied for
>one sadhaka and 3 for other sadhaka. It was believed that the idea 
>‘instant’
>might have got from one of great masters of recent times, sri Ramana
>Maharshi.  If it is correct, then, in this case also, the rise of

No, this is not correct, for sadyomukti (as I described it in the preceding 
posts) is not derived from recent times, but is mentioned in SankarAcArya's 
commentaries, written more than a thousand years prior to Sri Ramana 
Maharishi, based on upanishad texts that are timeless. It is therefore a 
question neither of belief nor of speculation.

>self-knowledge is not instant. In his previous life, he died before the 
>rise
>of this knowledge, and thus, in the next life, he got this self-knowledge
>instantly.  Thus, even though this self-knowledge ‘appears’ to be instant 
>to
>others in this case also, but in reality, it started from his previous life
>itself.

All of this is quite besides the point. Everyone has had a never-ending 
succession of prior lives, and has died and been reborn countless times 
before the rise of Self-knowledge. We are all going through a process 
characterized by imperfect knowledge and ignorance through all these lives. 
We are only peripherally concerned with all the past lives, but we are 
deeply concerned with the blossoming of full knowledge in this life itself. 
The trajectory of anAdy-avidyA is unimportant. What is important is to 
recognize that avidyA is anAdi and finding the way out.

Finally signing off on this thread, with regards,
Vidyasankar

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