[Advaita-l] sadhana

[V Subrahmanian]

The reason why one will not find explicit mention of stages or even the
steadying practices for jivanmukti like manonAsha is that for Shankara the
aspirant coming to vedanta is already a kRtopAstiH which Sw.Vidyaranya
specifies in the JMV.  For such a one who has already mastered upAsana
(dhyAna / bhakti) the jivanmukti is automatically firm.  Only the
akRtopAsti (one who comes to vedanta vichara through the backdoor, as it
were, without going thru the strenuous process of upAsanA, even if
aparokSha jnAna is attained (which will never go away), owing to the
inadequately trained / cultured mind, the onslaughts of the adverse past
karma will not permit a really peaceful enjoyment of jivanmukti.  In such
cases, if the jnani chooses, on gets great benefit by engaging in the yogic
practices and manonasha / vasanakshaya.  These are certainly not unwanted
or contradictory to Shankara's advaita.  Madhusudana Saraswati has taken
all those specific materials from the JMV.

Also, in the process of dhyAna yoga, the role of the pAtanjala yoga is
happily admitted by Sri SSS in the particular chapter of his book: gItA
shAstrArtha vivekaH where he has cited sutra by sutra correspondence with
the BG 6th ch.verses and admitted chittavRtti nirodha/samAdhi as sAdhana
for advaita jnana prApti.

Regarding the structured sadhana path, I remember to have translated and
posted an article of MM Vidwan Sri Krishnamurthy Sastrigal who has based it
on the early advaitic works of Sureswara, etc.  If I trace that article I
shall post it here.

regards
vs