[Advaita-l] Difficulty with Akhandakara Vrtti

[Anand Hudli]

Dear Shri Chandramouliji,

Your are right. The vedAntasAra of sadAnanada has explained how the
akhaNDAkAra vRtti destroys ignorance and also destroys itself. The
siddhAntalesha saMgraha also says: "tadutpatyuttarakShaNe eva
brahmAdhyastanikhilaprapan~chadAhena tadantargatasya tasyApi tadaiva
dAhAbhyupagamAt", we admit that brahmajnAna, in the very next moment after
it has arisen, burns up the the whole world that is superimposed on
Brahman, and burns up itself too as it is within the world. One of the
examples cited here is that of the kataka nut powder which is added to
water containing impurities. It makes the impurities settle down and itself
settles down, leaving the water clear. Another example is that of water
poured on red hot iron, where the water extinguishes the fire and seems to
disappear. Yet another example is that of fire burning up a bundle of hay
and itself getting extinguished when the hay is all burnt.

On Sun, Jun 28, 2015 at 8:19 PM, Anand Hudli <anandhudli at hotmail.com> wrote:

> In the laukika example, "This is that Devadatta", the recognition of
> devadatta, once it has occurred, there is no "abiding" (constant) feeling
> "this is that devadatta", just as the man who is told "you are the tenth",
> will not continue to "realize" that he is the tenth person, after he has
> realized just once, with the help of a passer-by (pramANa). After his
> earlier agony of missing a person is destroyed by the realization, "I am
> the tenth", the "realization" that he is the tenth also becomes irrelevant.
> Why? There was no missing person, to begin with, and so the statement "you
> are the tenth" was not really required! I think this is what the Swamiji is
> alluding to when he says the BrahmajnAna from the upanishad pramANa is a
> vRtti jnAna, as opposed to a svarUpajnAna. The brahmajnAna is only required
> to put an end to avidyA, and not beyond that.
>
> Anand
>