[Advaita-l] BrahmaGYAna and jIvanmukti - 7 (Summary)

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- On Thu, 2/19/09, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Jayaramanji,
>  
> Namaste,
>  
> I might have missed earlier portions of your excellent
> posts on this topic. However as I see now I find it
> difficult to agree with the definition of Ajnani as  
> "aGYAnI -> Indirect and Unsteady knowledge of
> Brahman." Can we not say that the Ajnani does not have
> the knowledge of Brahman"?
>  

Everyone has knowledge of Brahman, as Brahman can never be fully unknown. Most however have only indirect knowledge whereas the GYAnI has direct knowledge.

> Secondly as regards the authorship of Vivekachudamani I
> feel that Adi sankaracharya had composed it and JMV was
> influenced by VC. Adi sankaracharya did not compose all his
> books at the same level and at the same time. Because of
> this it appears to some that VC may not be  by Adi
> Sankaracharya. VC is definitely at the Crest.
>  

I've mentioned that although that is possible, there are a couple of reasons why it is more likely that the VC was influenced by the JMV rather than the other way around.

I just find it highly improbable that the author of the JMV would quote and give references to the precise verse numbers of the upadeshasAhasrii, naishhkarmya siddhi, etc. (besides several upanishhads and commentaries) but not provide a single reference to the VC, if the JMV was truly influenced by the VC.

> Regards,
>  
> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
> 

Regards,
Kartik