[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 4 (Scriptural References)

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

>namo nArAyaNAya!
>
>dear shrI jayanArAyaNan,
>
>   if available, can you provide some details regarding haradatta?
>(like his time period, his philosophical inclinations etc.)

Nothing much is known about Haradatta, except as the author of commentaries 
on the dharmasUtras. He lived most probably in the south.

>
>On 1/31/07, S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>>   Haradatta's commentary:
>>   "If salvation were obtained by Self-knowledge alone, then the
>>   GYAnI ought not to feel any bodily pain. This is not so.
>>   The GYAnI cannot tolerate hunger, acute pain/grief in the
>>   head/mind, even for a moment."
>
>its fine if one says that a j~nAni perceives pain. but isn't it
>incorrect to say that a j~nAni has NO control over hunger, pain etc.?

This would appear to be Haradatta's comment on the people he saw, in the 
society that he lived in. We should correlate this not with a GYAnI who is 
kRtakRtya, but with one who is called GYAni-mAtra in JMV. The "even for a 
moment" is obviously a slight exaggeration, done in order to drive home the 
point that rules apply to sannyAsin-s also.

One should also view these statements about "Self-knowledge alone" in the 
context that every human being already always knows his self, in some way. 
Every cognition, even the most mundane, begins with cognizing oneself. 
Nevertheless, there is also ignorance which stands in the way of one's truly 
knowing the real self. Therefore, merely becoming a sannyAsin is not enough, 
without developing the means towards stabilizing and becoming firmly 
entrenched in brahmavidyA.

Regards,
Vidyasankar

ps. Needless to say, the above does not mean is sannyAsa is "unnecessary" or 
that moksha can be given by one person to another in any way other than 
through imparting adhyAtmavidyA. If only the solution to saMsAra were that 
easy ...

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