[Advaita-l] Does Brahman Know?

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

Let me attempt to give a general answer to your comments here.

Liberation is something that you want, but it is not up to you
to dictate what that state of liberation is. Liberation consists
in knowing yourself, your true nature. It is beyond experience,
because your true nature is who you ARE, not what you experience.

It is curious that all the examples that you and your compatriots
give with respect to Ananda relate to food. You may want to move
beyond the level of the annamaya koSa and understand what the
Anandamaya koSa is all about, to really enquire into brahman.

Let me use your idli/flour example in a way that you may hopefully
understand.
 
You may want to eat the idli and not "want to become" flour.
However, when it is pointed out that you ARE flour, at a basic
level, your saying "I don't want to become flour" is not going
to change anything. If you ARE really flour, your "not wanting
to become" flour is not going to keep you from BEING flour.
Similarly, your "wanting to experience" Ananda without BECOMING
it cannot prevent your true svarUpa from BEING Ananda. It is not
a question of becoming or experiencing at all. It is one of being.
 
Understand this one fundamental precept well and you can begin to
appreciate advaita vedAnta. Refuse to accept it and you can take
some comfort in a non-advaita path. 
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar




> Date: Tue, 23 Nov 2010 20:17:47 +0000
> From: rajaramvenk at gmail.com
> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Does Brahman Know?
>
> Ishwara* *knows nirguna brahman and its exstence as Himself, jIvA and jagat.
> He is also infinitely blissful. His devotees experience this bliss (as
> visuddha sattva does not obstruct). There are infinite attributes and
> experiences through karma, yoga and bhakti. Each one of these and the
> experience of jnana is also known to Ishwara (Lord Krishna says that there
> is nothing hire than jnana. So he must know that experience also). When a
> jIvA realizes Ishwara, he can get any or all of these experiences because
> Ishwara favours His devotees with sarsti etc. A jIvA who is attracted to
> Ishwara with the intention of becoming absolutely one with Him might
> consider that goal is achieved at some stage. But in reality, does he reach
> the same state as Vishnu of omniscience and omnipotence? Or does he get
> tricked in to a state by Vishnu that he thinks there is no Vishnu, jagat
> etc.? One who likes idli will eat it with chutney but not want to become
> flour.
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