[Advaita-l] Binary nature of Jnana

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Anand ji, Venkat ji,

For the most part, my understanding is inline with what Venkat ji said
here. The minor differences follow:

On Wed 6 Jul, 2022, 12:42 AM Venkatraghavan S via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> 2. When one attains Jnana, one may practice Nididhyasana in order to
> > counter Viparita Bhavana.
>
> Yes. However, sometimes it is necessary to perform nididhyAsana even for
> the ride of jnAna - if the viparIta bhAvanA is so strong that jnAna itself
> does not arise, nididhyAsana itself is a means to jnAna.
>

In this case, I think nididhyAsana is acting as dhyAna and countering
obstacles to jnAna which appears to be parokSha. The very word
viparItabhAvanA is used for one having jnAna of samyagjnAna. That is why it
is a bhAvana, like people saying: it may be so, but I don't feel it!


> 3. Nididhyasana is post jnana. Until Jnana it is only Manana. Even Vedantic
> >
> Meditations can be considered only as Nirguna Upasana/Dhyana and not
> > Nididhyasana.
> >
> There cannot be such a rule in my view, because it would contradict
> shravaNa manana nididhyAsana all being cited in shAstra as the means to
> brahmajnAna. Further, as everyone has viparIta bhAvana even prior to the
> rise of jnAna, there is a requirement (in most cases) for nididhyAsana,
> even for the rise of jnAna.
>
In the case of an ajnAni, the jnAna and bhAvanA both are viparIta to that
revealed by shAstra. However, viparItabhAvanA is a word used in the case of
bhAvana being viparIta/opposite to the same person's jnAna. Else it is
viparItajnAna (a word I used in my very first response by oversight and
offered a correction to viparItabhAvanA later).

shravaNa and manana lead to aparokSha jnAna by taking away doubts about
pramANa and prameya respectively. nididhyAsana leads to sthiratA/ niShThA
in brahmAtmA.

Yet, since there is no clear cut division of three possible in practice,
they overlap over the next. So manana and nididhyAsana overlap, one merging
into the other and viparItabhAvanA dragging back to manana; this repeats
over and over.

>

> 6. The word Brahmanishta can be used for Ajnani and Jnani as well. It all
> > depends on the context where the word occurs.
> >
> In general, it is a term used for those that have already attained jnAna
> and are abiding in Brahman naturally.
>
> Having said that, it is arguable that the term brahmasamsthA can also be
> used for the ajnAni sannyAsi who is involved in shravaNa manana
> nididhyAsana.


yogAt rUDhIrbaliyasI. The primary meaning is the rUDhyartha, while with
yaugikArtha, many meanings are possible to be seen contextually. Ergo, when
not qualified so, both words mean abidance in brahma.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--praveen