[Advaita-l] FW: Avidya, Jnanis and SSS' views

[Bhaskar YR]

sAshtAnga praNAms Sri Vidya prabhuji
Hare Krishna

>  prabhuji, if you assure me that you are not going to fire me again, I 
dare to write something...


May I reiterate (at least for the third time on this list) that the term
"brahmavidAM varishTha" is from the muNDakopanishat? 

> who said this is not from muNDakOpanishat prabhuji??  Problem here is 
(atleast for me),  since saguNa brahmOpAsana or upAsya brahma and 
resultant krama-mukti also are there in advaita and those who get this 
jnAna also called brama vetta-s and shankara accepts the gradations in 
this type of mukti,  shankara in the above bhAshya 'compares' these type 
of brahmavidas (saguNOpAsaka-s) with that of absolute (paramOtkrushta) 
brahma jnAni and says this jnAni (when compared to saguNa brahma jnAni-s) 
among brahmavidAM is 'varishThaH'..Point to be noted here is he never 
accepted any gradation in absolute brahma jnAna which can be undoubtedly 
called real muktyAvastha, because shankara clarifies it is always eka 
rUpa: muktyAvasthA hi sarva vedAnteshu ekarUpaiva avadhAryate, brahmaiva 
cha muktyavasthA...reference vide sUtra bhAshya.  Moreover, IMO, it is 
appropriate to think there exists The best brahma jnAni if, ONLY if there 
is different levels in brahma jnAna..but I donot think shruti or shankara 
telling us here that there are gradations in absolute brahma jnAna. 

It is not an innovation of post-Sankaran authors of vyAkhyAna-s and 
prakaraNa-s.
May I also point out (again, at least for the third time here) that as
per standard grammar, the word varishTha presumes grades of vara
and varIyas. It is like good, better and best - you cannot talk of the
best without admitting the merely good and the relatively better. And
here, the Sruti itself is talking of the varishTha among brahmavit-s.
In case the point is lost somehow, this means that Sruti itself is the
authority for talking of the brahmavit, -vid-vara and -vid-varIyas.

>  Kindly let me know the different lakshaNa-s of these different types of 
brahma jnAni-s..In what way brahmavidvara's brahma jnAna differs from 
virIyas!! In what sense varishTa-s are superior to vara and varIyas.  you 
can ignore these questions if these brahmavits are the custodians of 
different type of brahma jnAna than what we normally understood as 
absoulte Atmaikatva jnAna.

I have never seen any comment in the past about what I have posted
on this list about this Sruti reference and the bhAshya on it by Sankara.
There is not a single sentence from him about whether the upanishat
usage of the word varishTha is merely a praise of brahmajnAna/jnAnI
and nothing about whether this is from the vyAvahArika standpoint of
an ajnAnI. I would encourage you to read this bhAshya with an open
mind.

>  yesterday I did read that bhAshya bhAga onceagain prabhuji at home and 
I am failed to read any implication of gradations in Atmaikatva jnAni-s by 
shankara here!!  Instead of making gradations in Atma jnAni-s, I felt that 
it is appropriate to understand the 'tAratamya' between saguNa 
brahmOpAsaka-s and nitya, shuddha, buddha, mukta Atmaikatva jnAni-s. Since 
both of brahma vida-s, in one or the other sense, shankara saying the 
jnAni who has realized the non-duality in absolute sense is varishTa among 
other brahma vida-s. One more point to be noted here is Atmaikatva jnAna 
is vastu tantra, it has to be known 'as-it-is' & there is no concession & 
parts in this jnAna (like half rope half snake :-))to have different 
levels of Atmaikatva jnAna in vara, varIya-s & varishTa-s..

>  Kindly dont think that since you donot know these intricacies in 
advaita I am saying all this!!...it is only an effort on my part to do 
manana on shankara siddhAnta.

Your humble servant
Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar