[Advaita-l] Sankhya & Yoga

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Shri Bhadraiah,
 
I cannot agree with the way you are looking at Karma. Yoga is joining or removing the separation or the skill for doing so. That is possible if one knows that the individual state (or call it "Jvahood") is only due to our involvement with Prakriti. Once one knows or sees or realises that then the individual separate existence gets automatically and convincingly denied. But to make this denial of individual self permanently imprinted in the mind one has to do practice so that a pathway is formed in the brain. One can do that through Karma or Bhakti or Jnana and a proper understanding of the concepts will automatically follow, even though initially it may appear to be a mere mechanical effort.

Once we do Niskama Karma we deny our self. Once this habit is formed without exception then the idea of the separate individual state or existence vanishes for ever and this Karmayogi eventually attains Brahman. Similarly an ardent Bhakta denies his individual self and lives in the universal Self day in and day out. So also a true Jnani  denies his individual self permanently. Lord Krishna hinted that for some the knowledge of Sankhya alone is sufficient to realize the ultimate state. Coming to Prana one who meditates on Prana would sooner or later realize that the same Prana is keeping us all alive and then the concept of individual Prana vanishes and one  lives in the universal Prana and thus the individual existence would lose meaning for one.  
 
Regards,
 
Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
 
 

--- On Fri, 5/22/09, Bhadraiah Mallampalli <vaidix at hotmail.com> wrote:


From: Bhadraiah Mallampalli <vaidix at hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Sankhya & Yoga
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Date: Friday, May 22, 2009, 9:28 AM



Dear Shri Bhattacharjya



prakrti and prajna: A strong case can be built around this theme. Jnana involves movement of prANa; 

and every movement of prANa causes a new thought if not a new identify itself for the jIva. Most of 

these thoughts so born can not be expressed in words, so it can be said karma can very well lead to 

Brhaman, so we have karma yoga. But the non-dual knowledge that dismantles duality of the movements 

of prANa (and their distinction from jnana) is greatest, so these movements of prANa were rejected by 

Sankara in Ch.U.VI as a cause of brahmajnanam. However samkhyas' prakRti may still be a very close 

approximation to prajna, like any other of the darshanas.  



>Individual purusha is under the control of Prakriti. If Maya is Prakriti then Mayin, call it Hara or even 

the Transcendental Purusha, is the master of Maya or Prakriti. Then tell me how can Mayin be the 

same as the Individual purusha, who is enamoured by Prakriti.



No, by purusha I always meant cosmic purusha. Individual creatures are imitations of that cosmic purusha, 

plus or minus a few limbs.  



>No doubt Pradhana is the initial pre-involvement stage. As the clutch of Prakriti is no longer there on the 

released purusha the prakriti does not exist for that released purusha but the prakriti continues to remain 

very much there for the other enamoured purushas. 


True, so individual creatures live under control or prakRti (just as they live under control of prajna). 


>Individual purusha sans involvement with Prakriti is the freed Purusha. Freed purush is a transitional state 

as we understand from Vedanta  that there is no multiplicity of purusha. 



Agreed, but I would still look for a Shruti that links prakRti with purusha. 



>Looking at the darshanas holistically seems to have become a thing of the past.


Agreed. 


>We do not speak of a role of the Brahman but Hara has a role hence there is the terminological 

distinction though there is no real distinction. 



That is the lesson from s'v.U. - Hara becomes a prerequisite step for jivatma before realizing Brahman, 

when said so by s'v.U. This looks like dvaita but as per the paribhasha of traditional dialog, when such 

pre-requisite step is introduced the practice is to accept it for time being and then resolve Hara into 

advaita in the next step; instead of outright rejection of dvaita. 



We can not outright reject any darshana, because they are all asymptotic to each other. We will 

need to be aware of them to avoid getting trapped unknowingly. 



Regards

Bhadraiah 

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