[Advaita-l] advaita siddhi 19 - MadhusUdana's reply

[Anand Hudli]

bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com wrote:

>prabhuji, kindly pardon my ignorance...I am not able to get the proper
>contextual meaning of this *total destruction* of object's causal & own
>forms after the brahma jnAna (brahmaGYAnanAshyatve .api)  I humbly here
>submit that the word *nAsha* (destruction) means bhAdita (sublation or
>avagati jnAna)...Because, according to shankara, even after the dawn of
>ultimate knowledge, jnAni's vyavahAra continues but with bhAdita jnAna.  In
>ArambhaNAdhikaraNa sUtra bhAshya  shankara says bhAdhitE cha ShArIrAtmatvE
>tadAshrayaH samasthaH svAbhAvikO vyavahArO bhAditO bhavati... So, shankara
>here tells us that for a jnAni this world does not cease to exist & he
>continues to cognize it as normal human beings do but with the sublated
>knowledge of what is real & what is unreal or what is kalipita in brahman.
>This is what shankara elsewhere confirms by saying * AtmAnAtmavivEkinAmap
>paNditAnAM ajAvipAlAnAmiva Avivaktau shabdapratyayaU bhavatu*.

It may be true that the world will continue to exist for the jnAni, but 
everything will be seen as the One Atman. Since there is a lack of duality, 
we may say that the world of duality has been destroyed. Or, it is possible 
that the jnAni will have to bear the results of prArabdha karma. But again, 
after the exhaustion of those results there is only the experience of 
Brahman with no trace of the world. Or, a third possibility is, as Shankara 
mentions in the bR^ihadAraNyaka bhAShya (1.4?), the Self knowledge, in its 
very nascent stage, may be overpowered by the tendency for karma.

As Shankara says in his introduction to the Anandavalli section of the 
taittirIya upaniShad bhAShya, there results a  complete absence of saMsAra 
from the removal of avidyA (prayojanaM cha asyA brahmavidyAyA 
avidyAnivR^ittiH; tatashcha AtyantikaH saMsArAbhAvaH ). Also, elsewhere 
Shankara says "kiMcha brahmavidAmanubhavo .api prapanchasya bAdhakaH| teShAM 
niShprapanchAtmadarshanasya vidyamAnatvAt.h |", "Further, the experience of 
the knowers of Brahman is also the sublation of the world, since they 
realize the Atman, devoid of the world."

Anand