[Advaita-l] compare and contrast

[subu]

Namaskaram,

1 Can any body tell me how the Knowledge is described by Ramanuja in
Visishtadvaitha, as in Advaitha we say that is the absolute.

2 Visistadvaitha is closer to Dvaitha or Advaitha.


Thanks
Subramanian sahasranamam


-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]On Behalf Of Ranjeet
Sankar
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 8:58 PM
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Re:clarification on Vedantasutra



----- Original Message -----
From: "Ramesh Badisa" <badisa55 at hotmail.com>
>
> Badisa: A jeevan mukta is technically said to have achieved salvation
while
> living with a physical body, as he experienced his true nature. This is
not
> called salvation in absolute sense. But it also does not mean that
salvation
> is achieved little by little. In order to differenciate the state of
divine
> experience of a jeevan mukta with vast majority of people who are not
divine
> experienced, sruti technically calls the divine experienced persons as
> jeevan muktas, as these people have liberated from the bondages of the
world
> (please see Muktiko Upanishad, 2.1, where Lord Ram teaches sri Hanuman
that
> liberation from all bondages of world as jeevan mukti, and who so ever
> attained this stage is called jeevan mukta). Absolute salvation is
concerned
> only with soul but not with physical body. Hence, in the case of a jeevan
> mukta, his soul merges in divine immediately after the death of his
physical
> body. This is called absolute salvation. Many sruti texts support merging
of
> soul in divine for absolute salvation (Prasna, Mundaka etc).


You say that jIvanmukti is not salvation in the absolute sense and then
contradict yourself saying that salvation is for the soul and not the body.
How is this reconcilable? If salvation is connected only with the soul, how
does it matter whether the body is present or not?  Salvation is the
realisation of unity of the Self and Brahman. When this realisation has
dawned, there is nothing else to achieve. The presence or absence of a body
is immaterial. The soul of jIvanmukta doesnt merge with anything upon the
death of the physical body. The *merging*, *becoming* etc. are all just
figurative speech.

Hari Om

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