[Advaita-l] Jivanmukti - Jnana plus Sannyasa pt 4

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Karthik prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Even Sankara allows for the possibility that Janaka was not a jIvanmukta 
in his commentary on Gita 3.20:

"atha aprAptasamyagdarshanAH janakAdayaH tadA karmaNA 
sattvashuddhisAdhanabhUtena krameNa saMsiddhimAsthitA iti"

"If it be held that Janaka (and others) did not attain to GYAna, then it 
can be said that they achieved purification of the mind (sattva-shuddhi) 
which gradually led to liberation." Note that Sankara permits for the lack 
of saMyag-GYAna by Janaka.

> Anyway, it is not a categorical declaration by shankara that Janaka was 
not a jnAni, as you know, it is his second option after accepting that 
janakAdi-s were jnAni-s but continuing their action because of past 
momentum.  So this is not going to help those who favour saNyAsAshrama for 
the mukti.  But what about arjuna??  shankara himself says in geeta 
bhAshya that arjuna has become a samyagdarshi & got samyagjnAna after 
geetOpadesha.  Ofcourse, we all know he is not a saNyAsi.  'dhruva' again 
a kshtriya and 'prahlAda' a dAnava by birth both are parama jnAni-s say 
our purANa & itihAsa.  Kindly dont think I am arguing this issue with 
you..Just I think it is totally unwarranted to link jnAna & jeevanmukti 
ONLY to sanyAsAshrama when we have somany examples against this 
contention.


Sankara and Sureshvara repeatedly say that one achieves GYAna only from 
the shruti.

>  And for that matter shankara also allows AtmajnAna to other 
varNAshrami-s (including shUdra-s) through the shravaNa of itihAsa / 
purANa.  So, when we say gyAna is only from shruti, it means those who 
have vedAdhikAra, for them shruti is the ONLY means for jnAna.  But it 
doesnot disallow Atma jnAna to shudra-s & stree-s..shankara makes this 
clear in sUtra bhAshya (1-4-38): eshAm punaH pUrvakruta saMskAravashAt, 
vidura, dharmavyAdha prabhruteenAM jnAnOtpattihi, teshAM na shakyate 
phalaprAptihi pratisheddhum, jnAnasya IkAntika phalatvAt, 
'shrAvayetcchaturO varNAn'(a quote from mOksha dharma)iti cha 'itihAsa 
purANAdhigame chAturvarNasya adhikAra smaraNAt. 

>  it is not an exceptional case of vidura & dharmavyAdha shankara talking 
here, he grants adhikAra to all the four varNAshrami-s and categorically 
says when jnAna dawns it is ONE and the SAME to ONE and ALL irrespective 
of his/her Ashrama...(jnAnasya IkAntika phalatvAt). 


> vidhura & dharmavyAdha-s,
> who  were shUdra-s, not 
> jeevan mukta-s,

It can be said that even though Vidura and others may have had GYAna, they 
may have lacked steadiness in their GYAna.

>  Kindly pardon me prabhuji, I dont think shankara saying this when he 
exclusively talking about jnAna related to vidura & dharmavyAdha. 


Regards,
Kartik

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar