[Advaita-l] Knower of brahman

[Mahesh Ursekar]

Pranams:

>>The thing that "the knower of brahman becomes brahman" happens only
after >>the death of his physical body, and this happens once his PK
become zero. >>Then as per Gita, 2/24, his soul becomes infinite,
meaning that the soul is >>divine, and that there is only one divine,
like only one sea remains once the river >>merges in it. Advaitam
takes place only at the end, and before that, it is the >>realization
of advaitam

I beg to differ on your interpretation of the realization Brahman
state, also called Samadhi. It is only in Samadhi that the knower,
know and the knowing process become one and so there is "only
Advaitam" at that time and no "realization of Advaitam". The latter
connotes the fact that the knower and know are different which is
impossible as per what Advaita means. Your analogy of the river and
the sea is slightly flawed since it appears to be more closer to a
Vishistha Advaitic interpretation that jiva and Atman are different in
some sense while Advaita is monism through and through - there is no
form of qualification!

Another point, which I know is open to a lot of discussion and debate
is whether Prarabdha karma is present after realization of Brahman.
>From what I have read, Sri Sankaracharya claims that PK is destroyed
at the time realization or one could say that once PK is zero, then
only can realization take place. After that point of time, all actions
drop off the individual and the individual will becomes one with the
divine will.

Regards, Mahesh





On Wed, 9 Mar 2005 12:47:22 -0800 (PST), ramesh badisa
<badisa66 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Namaste to all:
> 
> "The seers say that when one realizes Bramhman, the knower, the knowing
> and know become one. If that is indeed true, then when one returns to
> the normal state, how can one claim that Brahman was experienced as
> Sat-chit-ananda? That claim can only be made if the knower was
> different from the known during the experience"
> 
> Badisa: The knower of brahman becomes brahman. This is true. But the question is when this happens?
> 
> The state of above person you have mentioned is said to be called realization - meaning that he understood by experience that his soul is nothing but divine. But it does not mean that his soul, which is still localized finitely in a physical body (which is still facing the prarabdha karma -PK) at the time of realization or experience of divine, has become divine and acquired all divine powers, like powers of creation, dissolution etc. On the other hand, the above state only means that the above person understood the divine nature of his soul. Once experienced, he will always remember and experience his divine nature as sat-chit- ananda. So there is no question of returning to normal state. Up to this point, the person's soul is finitely localized, while divine is infinite and present everywhere at all the times. This clearly indicates that the soul of a divine experienced person is not divine 100% but possess divine qualities, like water present in the sea and in the river is
>  the
> same. The thing that "the knower of brahman becomes brahman" happens only after the death of his physical body, and this happens once his PK become zero. Then as per Gita, 2/24, his soul becomes infinite, meaning that the soul is divine, and that there is only one divine, like only one sea remains once the river merges in it. Advaitam takes place only at the end, and before that, it is the realization of advaitam.
> 
> Namaste
> 
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