[Advaita-l] jnAna-vijnAna, gradations in Atma jnAna, superior-inferior jnAna nishTa etc. etc. PART-I

[Siva Senani Nori]

I wanted to address a couple of issues raised in this thread:

1. Gradations in Atmaj~nAna versus gradations in establishment of Atmaj~nAna. When somebody says there is steady and unsteady Atmaj~nAna, on the face of it looks like two types of Atmaj~nAna itself; but it is not so. Steady has to be expanded as "firmly established", and unsteady as "not firmly established". To that extent I see no contradiction in Sri Karthik's post.

2. nishThA versus nishThah. The first means devotion, the latter means one who has devotion, along the lines of a bahuvrIhi compound, though samAsavritti is not strictly applicable here since nishTha is a modification of the root sthA (to be understood as 'situated in') combined with the prefix, nih (meaning 'firmly', or 'resolutely'). In this thread, nishThe (I think the prathamA vibhakti of nishThA in kannaDa)  nishTha and nishThA seem to have been used interchangeably greatly confusing the matter. I tried checking from Sri Bhaskar's post, as to which usage of the bhagavatpAda that he is referring to, but that is not clear. If we can know the original context, the meaning or the possible meanings of the word can easily be agreed upon. Note that when nishThA occurs as the last word of a compound with brahman, j~nAna, karma etc., the final long vowel is shortened and it usually refers to the person (one engaged resolutely in brahman, j~nAna, karma etc.). Since Sri Bhaskar
 was talking about j~nAna-nishTha, it can indeed be the j~nAni, or the one trying resolutely to obtain j~nAna. To decide which of these two  is the exact meaning - the consummate master or the earnest seeker - we have to depend on the context.

Regards
Senani

P.S.: Though I have the highest respect for mahasannidhAnam and for SrI sacchidAnendra sarasvati (based on exposure to his scholarship in this list), I am not a member of, or connected to, the paramparA of either svAmi.


 
____________________________________________________________________________________
8:00? 8:25? 8:40? Find a flick in no time 
with the Yahoo! Search movie showtime shortcut.
http://tools.search.yahoo.com/shortcuts/#news