[Advaita-l] Dayanand Saraswathi interview - Very interesting stand taken by Swami

[kuntimaddi sadananda]

  From: Vidyasankar Sundaresan via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>


The truth is that no one person can (or should) certify or deny another's
Jivanmukti. ------------------------------------------

PraNAms
I think Vidya  made the essential statement. No one CAN certify or deny anoher's Jivanmukta.
There were discussion also before by LalitaalalitaaH on the same topic. 

We can only go by what a mahatma says and writes. Upadesha saara and Sat Darshanam texts presents the essence of Vedanta and it it taken as one of the prakarana granthas in Adviata teaching. Sringeriji stated that Bhagavan Raman is a mahatma; that is more than one can say about anybody else. 

Disciples always glorify their teacher as realized; they need to, otherwise they will not have faith in his/her teachings. 

Was Vamadeva a jnaani - since he apparently did not or could not study scriptures! Not sure about Jadabharata in his later lives. 

In the final analysis it is ridiculous to try to evaluate someone else whether he/she is jnaani.  Jeevanmukta lakshana is only to  evaluate oneself.
Chandogya prescribes a simple test to see if one is realized or not.
If you touch a red hot iron with bare hand, and if you do not get burned, then you are realized. 

Shankara, of course, interprets this if a jnaani is one who when makes contact with the hot world, he will not get burned. 

That is the litmus test. Bhagavan Ramana appears to have lived peacefully throughout his life without getting burned. 

My 2c
Hari Om!Sadananda