[Advaita-l] Binary nature of Jnana

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Venkatji,

On Mon 4 Jul, 2022, 11:05 PM Venkatraghavan S, <agnimile at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> I listened to this talk - essentially what was said was that the term
> brahmasamstha occuring in this context can only apply to sannyAsa Ashrama -
> the reason for this is that the yaugika meaning of the term brahma-samsthA
> can only apply to the sannyAsi.
>
> The yaugika meaning given by the bhAShyakAra is as mentioned by Sri
> Chandramouli - samsthA in brahmasamthA means culmination, avasAna. So the
> term brahmasamsthah in this context means - he whose sole purpose is
> culmination in brahman (brahmajnAna), ie those for whom there is nothing
> else enjoined. This obviously cannot apply to any other Ashrami, because
> they do have other karma-s that have been enjoined for them.
>
> The Shruti vAkya in question, ‘ब्रह्मसंस्थोऽमृतत्वमेति’ is saying  that
> the one who is a brahmasamsthah (a sannyAsi who has no necessity for
> anything other than brahmajnAna, one who has culminated in Brahman) attains
> immortality.
>
> I don't think the corrolaries you suggest necessarily follow from this
> much alone - i.e. in saying that the sannyAsi attains inmortality, it does
> not follow that no one else can attain it.
>
Sorry, your conclusion on my basis for questions is erroneous. If you had
changed the order of your response to both of us, you'll likely not have
questioned my questions! I request you to revisit my questions after taking
the meaning of brahmasaMstha in 3.4.20 BSBB as only a sAdhaka and not
jnAnI, because that is the point on which those questions are raised. To
clarify, the pUrvapakSha will then mean: how can brahmasaMstha be only a
sannyAsI? And the response given would end up meaning: because
brahmasaMsthA means a sAdhaka whose duties can culminate in brahmaniShTha.

All the bhAShya is seeking to do is to establish that brahmasamsthah can
> only mean sannyAsi. Therefore, the force of the siddhAntin's refutation of
> the pUrvapakshI lies primarily in dismissing the contention that the term
> can apply to other Ashrama-s also, not in stating that jnAna cannot arise
> in other Ashrama-s.
>
> Therefore the argument is that if one belongs to any other Ashrama, they
> have an obligation to continue performing their duties even after
> brahmajnAna, so they cannot have samsthA, samApti in brahmajnAna. That
> would incur pratyavAya. Therefore, they cannot be the ones referred to by
> the term brahmasamsthAh.
>

Rest of the explanation from the audio of the pATha given by you is exactly
what I understood, except that both meanings were yaugika, one at samAsa
level and another at upasarga level.

gurupAdukAbhyAm

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