[Advaita-l] The Evolution of Advaita from Sankara till Date

[Praveen]

praNAm all,

Hari Om, Sivaramakrishnan-ji,

On Sun, May 18, 2008 at 2:25 AM, sivaramakrishnan muthuswamy
<muthushiv at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Let me put it this way, with out sankalpa those who aims for jnana, attaining is difficult.  Here we have to question what is the use of sankalpa.  The sankalpa leads to non-attachment in the activities.  Essentially the disciple attains chitta sudhi (Mind purification).  As a result he qualifies/obtains for jnana as it is instantaneous.  Delusional snake instantaneously changes as rope upon realizing the true nature of rope.
>

Perhaps, you meant to say the same thing as I am saying, but just so
that the confusion is resolved, I'll provide my closing comment on
what saMkalpa means to me in a Veda kArya. Apologies if sounds like a
repetition. Apte dictionary defines saMkalpa as:
1. will;
2. purpose;
3. wish;
4. thought;
5. the mind;
6. a solemn;
7. expectation of advantage from a holy voluntary act;
8. consideration;

And thats what I meant. saMkalpa is a wish or a desire that one
expects to be fulfilled from a Vedic ritual. If that is done, then
phala accrues as per the desire. Having said that, it *opposes* jnAna,
doesn't *aid* it. Instead, the ritual is to be done without expecting
a laukika benefit and instead, one must perform the ritual with an
IshvarArpaNa or "idam na mama" (this is not for me) bhAva for the
result also. AFAIK, only then, it helps develop vairAgya, leading to
mumukshutva, which is the utmost factor for gaining jnAna.

gurOrarpaNamastu,
--praveen
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