[Advaita-l] Jnana and Karma (was Fwd: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 75, Issue 5)

[Krishnadas]

Sri Vidyasankarji,

Would you like to suggest in simple and practical terms, what might be this
valid vaidIka path from karma to its renunciation.  I think that we all
struggle with living jnana, whilst at the same time finding ourselves
impelled to karma.  We try to respond to our prarabdha karma in a way which
reflects our jnana understanding, but often with mild success.

Theoretically, of course, the error in this question might be: who is doing,
responding, etc, but within the realms of each of our individual
experiences, in our dualistic states we find ourselves in, we do still
experience being the doer, etc., despite our mental acknowledgement that
"all is Brahman". 

Krishnadas

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>Sri Subrahmanian has already demonstrated why the padma purANa verses are
clear and deliberate misunderstandings of advaita. I must, however, along
with <.
>Sri Murali, question your motivations if you think that the gauDiya
vaishNavite's favorite verses attributed to the padma purANa are a correct
representation of >the advaita position. You are looking only at the kernel
of the advaita position regarding karmA and its renunciation, forgetting the
pith of the matter. 
 
>"Encouraging the ignorant alone to perform veda karmA" - everybody who is
born comes with ignorance. It follows that according to advaita, everybody
has to >perform vaidika karmA, till the qualification for renunciation is
firm. karmA and jnAna cannot be combined, because one cannot renounce karmA
and still insist >upon its performance. Those sampradAya-s that have a place
for saMnyAsa and still insist upon karmA have a deep rooted contradiction
internally, in their core.

>On the other hand, in advaita vedAnta, there is a path from karmA to its
renunciation and if you don't see that this path is a valid vaidIka path,
you are gravely >mistaken about what vaidIka really means. In this, you are
not alone, for this sort of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the
advaita position (deliberate or >otherwise) is common to many. But if that
is your preferred view, perhaps advaita-L is not the company you should
keep.
 
Vidyasankar 		 	   		  
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