[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 2 (TheCaseof YAGYavalkya)

[Amuthan]

namo nArAyaNAya!

On 11/16/06, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> There are some statements in Sankara's BSB that speak of  mithyA
> GYAna remaining for "sometime" even for a Brahmavit. For example, BSB
> 4.1.15:
>
> akartR^i AtmabodhaH api hi mithyAGYAnabAdhanena karmANi ucchinatti .
> bAdhitamapi tu mithyAGYAnaM dvicandraGYAnavat.h saMskAravashhAt.h
> ka~NcitkAlam.h anuvartata eva .
>
> "The knowledge of the Self (Atmabodha) destroys Karmas by sublating
> mithyAGYAna. EVEN AFTER BEING SUBLATED, MITHYAGYANA CONTINUES FOR A
> SHORT WHILE OWING TO PAST SAMSKARAS."

since the mithyAj~nAna mentioned here is dvichandraj~nAnavat, i'm not
sure if it has the same implications as that of the BUBh you quoted
earlier (yadyapyevaM... niyantavA bhavati).

in the context of the BUBh, it is clear that even after the rise of
samyagj~nAna, traces of avidyA remain for some brahmavit-s since a
continuous recollection of Atmaj~nAna along with tyAga, vairAgya etc.
(nididhyAsana in short) is recommended for it's cessation. however, in
the BSB you have quoted above, the presence of the term
'dvichandraj~nAnavat' seems to suggest that there is no avidyA left,
but only that there is an 'appearance' of duality. thus, the j~nAni
referred to here has no necessity to do even activities like
nididhyAsana since the knowledge of the mithyAtva of duality is
definitely present. interpreted this way, the above BSB passage refers
to a jIvanmukta and means that after a short time (after the fall of
the body), he'll become a videhamukta. thus, while the BUBh quoted
earlier is for a brahmavit who is not a jIvanmukta, the present BSB
quote merely states how videhamukti is attained by a jIvanmukta, not a
brahmavit who is not a jIvanmukta.

the assumption i'm making here is that a mere appearance of duality
does not imply that avidyA exists, for otherwise it would imply that
even jIvanmuktAs have avidyA; it is the false identification of the
Atman with anAtman (adhyAsa) which constitutes avidyA. this false
adhyAsa doesn't exist in a jIvanmukta though he may perceive duality.

is my understanding correct or have i goofed up somewhere?

vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmRtaH.