[Advaita-l] Re: Is an ISvara compatible with advaita?

S Jayanarayanan sjayana at yahoo.com
Tue Feb 15 12:56:44 CST 2005


I did not want to participate in this thread, but there are just
too many misunderstandings in this posting.

--- Amuthan Arunkumar R <aparyap at yahoo.co.in> wrote:

[..]

> > If the jivanmukta still remained ignorant
> > to some degree then he
> > would not been able to teach us about the absolute
> > reality since he didn´t
> > knew it himself! In other words, we would never have
> > the opportunity to know
> > the truth even from
> > the greatest of gurus.
> 
> consider this : to teach someone, a jIvanmukta has to

"To the Self-realized, there is no one to teach." 
-- Ramana Maharshi

[..]

> even if this is accepted, the "body" of a jN.Ani can
> only remain like a corpse, no action should be
> possible, for who is the performer of actions then?
> 

Been discussed on this list, check
http://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2004-December/014435.html
. Only the aGYAnI identifies the GYAnI as having a body and
"teaching".

---
Q: I see you doing things. How can you say that you never
perform actions? 
A: The radio sings and speaks, but if you open it you will find
no one inside. Similarly, my existence is like the space; thou
this body speaks like the radio, there is no one inside as a
doer. 
Q: I find this hard to understand. Could you please elaborate on

this? 
A: Various illustrations are given in books to enable us to
understand how the jnani can live and act without the mind,
although living and acting require the use of the mind. The
potter's wheel goes on turning round even after the potter has
ceased to turn it because the pot is finished. In the same way,
the electric fan goes on revolving for some minutes after we
switch off the current. The prarabdha [predestined karma] which
created the body will make it go through whatever activities it
was meant for. But the jnani goes through all these activities
without the notion that he is the doer of them. It is hard to
understand how this is possible. The illustration generally
given is that the jnani performs actions in some such way 
as a child that is roused from sleep to eat eats but does not
remember next morning that it ate. It has to be remembered that
all these explanations are not for the jnani. He knows and has
no doubts. He knows that he is not the body and he knows that he
is not doing anything even though his body may be engaged in
some activity. 

These explanations are for the onlookers who think of the jnani
as one with a body and cannot help identifying him with his
body. 
---

> again, SrI SankarAcArya clearly states "he's no more
> embodied as before..". the implication is that a
> jN.Ani does not have a SarIra, not that he is
> indifferent to it. 
> 
> i'll make my point a little more clear. once a person
> has aparokshAnubhUti, nothing other than the brahman
> exists. now, how can "he" "come back" to a "world".

Simple -- for such a person, there is no "coming" or "going".

GauDapAdIya kArikA III-31. Whatever there is, moving and
unmoving, which constitutes this duality, is perceived by the
mind, for when mind does not exist as mind, duality is never
perceived.

-Kartik


		
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