[Advaita-l] The all-encompassing knowledge - brahma jnAna

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms 
Hare Krishna

 After reading Sri Venkatraghavan prabhuji's mail on 'sarva nivrutti' through sublation as enshrined in advaita siddhi,  parallelly I got a thought about the way in which brahma jnana can fetch us the sarvAtma bhAva ( an all-encompassing knowledge or sarvAvrutti jnana ) and what exactly this jnana removes or sublates.  

Shankara in his commentaries  uses  the terms like nAsha, bAdha laya,  vinAsha etc. to denote the bAdhita jnana (sublative knowledge) in the paramArtha jnAni.  What exactly that is going to be bAdhita / sublated  in jnAni's drushti??  Whether it is mithyatva of jagat itself or mithyatva of his (wrong) relationship with jagat??  Whether the paramArtha jnAni realizes this jagat itself is his (jeeva's) avidyA kalpita like snake on the rope OR it is 'khilyabhAvaH' / parichinnatvaM  that he was, prior to jnana wrongly superimposed on the existing jagat??  parichinnatvaM of jagat is jeeva srushti due to his avidyA whereas jagat 'as it is' not aparipUrNa because of the simple fact that for this jagat brahman itself is the abhinna nimittOpadAna kAraNaM.  So what is the role of jnana here?? Whether this jnana capable of destroying something already existing??  Whether jeeva's ajnAna capable of creating something ??  When jnana itself does not have the capacity to create or destroy something how can a tuccha / heena  avidyA would be capable of creating this guhya, gahana jagat??  Na tu paramArthikaM vastu kartuM nivartayituM vA arhati brahmavidyA clarifies shankara in bruhadAraNyaka.  So, what exactly that gets sublated after the dawn of brahma jnana??  To this question bhAshyakAra answers : avidyAkruta vyatirekeNa abrahmatvaM asarvatvaM cha vidyata eveti chet?? Na tasya brahmavidyayA apOhAnupapatteH...abrahmatvaM asarvatvaM cha avidyAkrutameva nirvartyatAM brahma vidyayA...Shankara's bhAshya vAkya here is self-explanatory.  The sublation of jagat's parichinnatvaM, aparipUrNatvaM, abrahmatvaM would take place in the brahma jnAni and he would establish himself in all-encompassing knowledge ( paripUrNa, aparichinna Atmaikatva jnana).  And this is what further clarifies by shankara in mundaka bhAshya : brahmaivedaM vishwaM samastaM, abrahma pratyayaH sarvaH avidyAmAtraH rajjvAmiva sarpa pratyayaH...When I think I am a shareeri and I have a male body, I am so and so person that is avidyA parichinna drushti, due to this avidyA drushti I have wife, son, relations profession etc.  When I realize (the knowledge in absolute sense) that I was / am / will forever be ashareeri these deha saMbandhita relations would get sublated even though there exists stree,  purusha  and the platform (jagat) on which these creatures  living etc. So in this scenario what exactly is avidyAkalpita / bhrama that gets sublated is :  samsara due to assumption of limitations of unlimited.  Once this limitations get sublated what remains is :  sarvaM hi asmAkaM AtmabhUtameva sarvasya cha vayaM AtmabhUtAH. And his realization is like  : pUrvaM avidyayA asarva Aseet punaH vidyayA avidyApanaye sarvObhavati. And in that state there is no taskara, there is no veda, there is no karma bandha, there is no deva, there is no mAta na pitru...What is there is ekamevAdviteeyaM...

Perhaps I won't get tired of repeating this again and again :-)

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar