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

[Bhaskar YR]

You got me wrong. I was just wondering if someone being a Jnani / jivanmukta can be determined or not. I also gave a reason that, if we can't determine if a person is jivanmukta or not, then it becomes an abstract idea. Moksha will become a speculation.

praNAms Sri Kripa prabhuji
Hare Krishna

paramArtha jnana, jnAni's lakshaNa, mOksha etc. are not abstract ideas since these are all Upanishad pratipAdita.  There is a clear definition about jnana phala (clearing the knots of hrudaya, getting rid of all saMshaya etc.) and shankara in sUtra bhAshya says jnAni himself knows whether he is jnAni or not since it is (jnana) his hrudaya spandana and nobody can deny it or doubt it.  However, identifying a  particular person as jnAni, jeevanmukta etc.  by others is purely a subjective opinion.  A jnAni like ramaNa might not be a shrOtreeya in his current janma,  but his followers, who want to be in the traditional boundaries,  would believe that he was shrotreeya and might have completed the formalities of shAstrAdhyayana (shravaNAdi sAdhana in traditional style) in his pUrva jaNma and that sAdhana fructified when he posed a question to himself about 'death' and instantly become brahmanishTa.  Scriptures / shankara bhAshya too have the references for this type of jnAni-s like in vAmadeva, dharmavyAdha, vidhura and some atyAshrami-s like raikva, vAchaknavi.  However, to our bewilderment, jnAni-s like ramaNa sometime advises to pour the kerosene   on the caravan of ants at the ashrama,  a jnAni like bhagavatpAda, might have  lost himself in the body of king, a parama jnAni like geetAchArya even after giving geetOpadesha, may lose his cool and ready to throw his sudarshana in anger :-)  And for these strange behavior of jnAni-s, tradition has the justification in the form of 'prArabdha karma' and avidyA lesha and 'time gap' between jnAnOtpatti and absolute mOksha ( mukhya mukti). And there is a chance to beat the jnana by prabala karma (labdha vrutteH karmaNO baleeyastvAt) due to which sometime even jnAni-s also would behave like any ordinary ajnAni-s as their vAngmanaH kAya would continue to function normally.  So, we have plenty of shAstra sammata justification / clarification in tradition to defend someone who we subjectively accept as jnAni or otherwise.  

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar