[Advaita-l] About Moksha or Enlightenment

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Kripa shankara prabhuji
Hare Krishna

Since Sri VidyA prabhuji asked us to stop this discussion, with this I shall stop...

I just wanted to know if it is possible for an animal to get Moksha. I have no doubts regarding RM or the cow. 

>  I am happy that you have spared RM and the poor cow Lakshmi from your doubts atleast in this context  :-) No, for 'mruga'  mOksha is not possible hence for the manushya rUpi mruga also  mOksha is not possible.    

At least in the  context of Advaita, mukti means Jivanmukti. Is it not? Shankara has clarified ‎that krama mukti is not Moksha/enlightenment/nirvana. Because otherwise, any random animal/bird/insect may go to shiva/vishnu lokA after death. Who knows? 

>  Sri Vidya prabhuji addressed your doubt.  And as I said earlier 'mukti' can be interpreted contextually differently.

‎Hmm...amusing. So did lakshmi, the cow chant any Veda mantras? Or did it demonstrate any extraordinary faculty? Can we believe someone is a doctor just by his / her friend's testimony? 

>  when rAma could hear jatAyu, when bear headed jAmbavanta could talk to Krishna and doing the 'kanyAdAna' (satyavati, the daughter of jAmbavanta got married to Krishna and this bear headed jambavanta is father-in-law of Krishna),   when hanuman praise rAma and talked to seeta, when vishNu can hear gajendra's ArtanAda why RM followers should  not believe that jnAni like ramaNa hear the prayers of cow Lakshmi and granted her mOksha ??  RM himself says somewhere that he could understand the language of monkeys, sparrows, squirrels at his Ashrama and his followers are believing it is so like we are believing that a pakshi like jataayu talked to rAma at its death bed and monkey headed hanuman is chaturveda pArangata.  

You are partially right in the final part. Jnana cannot be gained but the obstacles for the jnAna to shine forth has to removed. As I understand ajnAna can be removed only through jnana (jiva-Brahma aikya). The source of this jnana (removal of ajnana) is the mahavAkyas. So a cow which cannot even speak can meditate on the mahavAkya and even realize that it is brahman. Sure, why not :D ‎

 ‎>  vedAnta is the pramANa for those who have vedAdhyayana adhikAra but for the  jnAna / mukti  even stree, shUdra, Vaishya eligible, even though for them tradition not granted the vedAdhikAra.   Shankara says they too can get mukti...how??  he says through karma, japa, fasting, worshipping god etc.  shankara gives vidhura, dharmavyAdha examples here.  

>  Anyway, instead of scratching our heads whether pashu, pakshi are eligible for mukti or not,  we better focus our attention in the direction of our own AtmOnnati...Since we are believing in ourselves that we are manushya praNi/jaati, who is far superior to other jantu-s :-) 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar