[Advaita-l] Question about Sri Vidyaranya's JMV & jnani matra

[Bhaskar YR]

praNAms Sri Sada prabhuji
Hare Krishna


  *   Kindly pardon me for being more vociferous and argumentative today prabhuji …whenever free time at office, vedAnti in me arouse with all his antennas 😊

First, no one can answer the question the way you want.


  *   Yes, it Is quite unfortunate.  And at the same time no one wants to hear the answer which is not palatable to them 😊


Only jnaani has to answer. No jnaani will declare that I am a jnaani.


  *   sadananda rUpaM shivOham, shivOham, vAmadeva exclaims in ecstasy that he is manu etc. and arjuna accepted that nashtO mOha, smutirlabdhvA and taitereeya rishi exclaims in bliss he is anna, annada, shlOkakarta…so jnAni sometimes announces that he has that sarvAtma bhAva.


No one else can declare that some person X is a jnaani.


Ø     But let us be practical, don’t we consider our Acharya-s in paraMpara are jnAni-s of par excellence / Jeevan mukta-s / jagad guru-s??  Though we are no way qualified to certify other Acharya-s, don’t we hasten our opinion on them??  Don’t you think Acharya-s / muni-s in our parampara labelled some as jnAni mAtra but not Jeevan mukta etc.??  So, only jnAni recognizes another jnAni is good only on paper 😊

It is important for the disciples to assume that their teacher is a jnaani - that way one has Shraddha on the teaching.


Ø     Yes, for us, the Advaita vedAnta followers, bhagavatpAda is parama shreshTa jnAni an epitome of jnana and viveka whereas for others (dualists) he is mAyAvadi, incarnated just to delude people 😊

A right teacher is one who directs the disciples to the scriptures as the authority than to himself.


Ø     Yes, but when apaurusheya scripture is not clear in its purport,  we depend on our Acharya bhAshya, a paurusheya grantha as pramANa which is as explained by our immediate guru.  Hence somany conflicts among various schools of thought though the premise of those schools are one and the same i.e. shabda pramANa 😊

Hence the best way to understand how jnaani acts is to look at how the great mahatmas acted when faced different circumstances.
brahma vit brahmaiva bhavati - says the scripture.


Ø     But as you know, when one becomes swimmer by knowing the swimmer, he is not only a swimmer but continue to be a person with other personalities as well.  Likewise when one becomes brahma jnAni or paramArtha jnAni he still continue to be an individual person due to his prArabdha and subject to rAga-dvesha due to avidyalesha.  So, we cannot categorically conclude jnAni’s acts are this only and nothing more / nothing less than that..idamittham conclusion is not possible, shreshaTa-s may not meet our expectations some time 😊  If the jnAni is exhibiting kAma krOdha, since he is shreshTa his AcharaNa will be religiously followed by lOka as well as lord says : yad yadAcharati shreshTaH …..sa yat pramANam kurute lOkastadanu vartate.  It is not vittanda at any stretch of imagination since we have seen how jnAni is continue to get vrutti-s influenced by remnants of avidyA.

Brahman being infinite cannot act.


Ø     So, brahma vit brahmaiva bhavati, the jnAni who has become brahman by knowing brahman can act with katrutva / bhOktrutva bhAva ??  or can he act at all ??

Hence any action is at vyavahaara state - Krishna says it is the Prakriti that does all the actions - prakRityaiva ca karmnaani kriyamaanaani sarvashaH. A jnaani has understood that or jannaani is the one who understood that. Either way, He does not act. Yet that statement is true for both jnaani and ajnaani. ajnaani also does not act but he unnecessarily takes up the kartRitva bhaava and therefore sufferers.


Ø     Yes prabhuji, I agree.

Jaaani knows he does not act but appropriate actions will come out as needed in response to the demand.


Ø     Demands will be made by the on lookers, hence they will get what they want or they will see want they want to see in jnAni and interpret it according to their taste and tendency. jnAni who is in his true svarUpa, akartA / abhOkta only.  That is the reason why bhAshyakAra in Geeta says even the jnAni’s act of ‘bhikshAtana’ etc. in the eyes of loukika-s who attribute katrutva to him.  But in reality he is akarta only.

Jnaani as witnessing consciousness sits back and enjoy the tamasha - It becomes His Vibhuti. The best thing is to look at the lives of Krishna - Was he acting or was he not acting. Both are true - but from His point, it is only a Leela.


Ø     Na katrutvaM, na karamAni lOkasya srujati prabhuH..guNa guNeshu vartante, .  Na me pArthAsi kartavyaM trishu lOkeshu kiMchana etc. says lord in Geeta.



If a person kicks somebody on the stage in a drama - the fellow who got kicked cannot go to court to sue him. It is all Leela.

Krishna was dynamically involved in every scene but he can claim that I this is all my Leela.


Ø     And he is akhanda brahmachAri as well though he has 16000 wives and sons 😊

That understanding is internal.

Now you can decide whether jnaani acts or not.


Ø     Let the mere act of jnAni be aside, first we have to save him from the cruel joke on him that he has rAga-dvesha gets pravrutti accordingly 😊

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!