[Advaita-l] Fwd: Knowledge of Brahman

[Ravi Kiran]

On Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 1:24 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste,
> The Upanishada does talk about the five Koshas. After the Jiva  leaves
> behind the Sthula sarira, which consists of the Annamaya Kosha and the
> Pranamaya Kosha, it is left with Sukshma sarira, which consists of the
> three finer Koshas. The Jiva will have to leave the Sukshma sarira too, to
> become Videha-mukta, in order to become free from the Maya. It is Maya,
> which creates the false division between the Jiva and Brahman.
>

अथाकामयमानः—योऽकामो
निष्काम आप्तकाम आत्मकामो न तस्य प्राणा उत्क्रामन्ति,
ब्रह्मैव सन्ब्रह्माप्येति ॥ ६ ॥

Bri Up - 4.4.6


He who sees the Self, as in the state of profound sleep, as
undifferentiated, one without a second, and as the constant light of Pure
Intelligence—only this disinterested man has no work and consequently no
cause for transmigration; therefore his organs such as that of speech do
not depart. Rather this man of realisation is Brahman in this very life,
although he seems to have a body. *Being but Brahman, he is merged in
Brahman.* Because he has no desires that cause the limitation of
non-Brahmanhood, therefore ‘being but Brahman he is merged in Brahman’ in
this very life, not after the body falls. A man of realisation, after his
death, has no change of condition—something different from what he was in
life, but he is only not connected with another body. This is what is meant
by his becoming ‘merged in
<http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-brihadaranyaka-upanishad/d/doc122058.html#page-721>Brahman’;
for if liberation was a change of condition, it would contradict the unity
of the Self that all the Upaniṣads seek to teach. And liberation would be
the effect of work, not of knowledge—which nobody would desire. Further, it
would become transitory, for nothing that has been produced by an action is
seen to be eternal, but liberation is admitted to be eternal, as the Mantra
says, ‘This is the eternal glory (of a knower of Brahman),’ etc. (IV. iv.
23).

...

for the Supreme Self is the only entity that exists. As the Śruti says,
‘One only without a second’ (Ch. VI. ii. 1.). And there is no other entity
that is bound, whose freedom from bondage, as from fetters, would be
liberation,  the cessation of ignorance alone is commonly called
liberation...


तदेष श्लोको भवति ।
    यदा सर्वे प्रमुच्यन्ते कामा येऽस्य हृदि श्रिताः ।
    अथ मर्त्योऽमृतो भवत्यत्र ब्रह्म समश्नुत ॥ इति ।
तद्यथाहिनिर्व्लयनी वल्मीके मृता प्रत्यस्ता शयीत, एवमेवेदं शरीरं शेते,
अथायमशरीरोऽमृतः प्राणो ब्रह्मैव तेज एव; सोऽहं भगवते सहस्रं ददामीति होवाच
जनको वैदेहः ॥ ७ ॥

.....

But how is it that when the organs have been merged, and the body also has
dissolved in its cause, the liberated sage lives in the body identified
with all, but does not revert to his former embodied existence, which is
subject to transmigration? The answer is being given: Here is an
illustration in point. *Just as *in the world *the lifeless slough of a
snake is cast off* by it as no more being a part of itself, *and lies in
the ant* - *hill,* or any other nest of a snake, *so does this body, *discarded
as non-self by the liberated man, who corresponds to the snake, *lie* like
dead.

....

आत्मानं चेद्विजानीयादयमस्मीति पूरुषः ।
किमिच्छन्कस्य कामाय शरीरमनुसंज्वरेत् ॥ १२ ॥


If a man knows the Self as ‘I am this,’ then desiring what and for whose
sake will he suffer in the wake of the body?

...



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