[Advaita-l] Jnan-karma samuccaya

srikanta srikanta at nie.ac.in
Tue Nov 23 04:13:41 CST 2010


With reference to the above topic,Jnana-karma samuccaya means combination
of Jnana and performance of Karma for realisation.Shankara in his "Brahma
sutra bhashya"comments about Jnana-karma samuccaya vadins who seems to
have been in his time.He says,these vadins say that it is not enough if
one obtains Jnana,he must continue to perform karma even during obtaining
Brahmajnana,and also continue to perform Karma even after realisation.The
Bhedha-abhedhavadins Bartrprapanca,Brahmanandin,Dravidacharya seem to
belong to this category.Shankara says that Jnana cannot be combined with
Karma,because light cannot coexist with darkness.It is clear that these
Bhedha-abhedhavadins are the earlier mimamsakas like Prabhakara Mishra.The
vishishtadwaita founder Ramanuja also belongs to this category.He says in
his SriBhashya that one must perform one's delegated karma till the
end.Shankara's illustrious disciple Sureshwara in his
"Naishkarmayasiddhi"criticises these Jnana-karma samuccayavadins.
In his Bhashya on Ishawasyopanishad also Shankara has clearly brought out
that Jnana-karma samuccaya is not possible.
                                                        N.Srikanta.









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