[Advaita-l] [advaitin] Re: Does the mukta/jnani see the world?

[Sudhanshu Shekhar]

Namaste BhAskar ji.

There is no better text than Advaita Siddhi, IMHO, to understand advaita
vedAnta conceptually. Such clear and emphatic articulation of concepts is
rare. It is 100% based on BhAshya, VArtika and VivaraNa and completely
reliable.

(a)  Is shankara bhagavatpAda mukta (Jeevan mukta) or not??  It is only
> arthavAda and bhagavatpAda himself a mere object in DSV, how can I believe
> he is having any 'stuff' in his teaching??  After all 'he', his teaching
> etc. are just my imagination is it not??
>

In SDV, yes, Shankara BhagvatpAda was a jIvanmukta. In DSV also you can
hold jIvanmuktatA of AchArya, but as an arthavAda. You can believe that he
is having "stuff" in his teaching because the teaching is
abAdhita-artha-vishayaka. Everything vanishes but that abAdhita-artha does
not vanish. Hence, the teaching, even though imaginary, is prAmANika.

(b) if the realization itself is arthavAda what is the role of sampradaya
> and sampradaya teaching??  And what is the need of Advaita sAdhana like
> shravaNAdi sAdhana??  When all these things are mere super imagination of
> this eka jeeva??


Who said that realization is arthavAda?


> (c) when this eka jeeva knows (intellectually) or realizes literally that
> he is one and everything else is his imagination, through which means
> (sAdhana) he would attain this knowledge and how he validates his knowledge
> and how he would determine his realization is genuine and not his mere
> stupid imagination??


Realization is removal of avidyA and loss of jIvatva. There remains no jIva
to validate its realization. There remains no imagination post-jnAna.

The means to attain this realization, i.e. remove the ignorance, are same
as in SDV, i.e. shravaNa, manana and nididhyAsana.

(d) And finally the author MS and his works (sankshepa shaareerika teeka,
> vedAntamuktAvali, AS, gUdArtha Deepika etc.) is just there in my ( the
> alone jeeva) imagination and I am drawing conclusions that in SDV ONLY
> jeevanmukta possible and DSV is just not accepting this etc.??  Don’t we
> get the doubt that in imagination we are just doing sub(upa) imagination??
> 😊


There is no means to verify that you are not dreaming right now. There
exists no parameter whereupon distinction of dream and waking can be
posited. Hence, dream and waking are identical in all respect. Yes, MS, his
works, this world, VedAs are all imaginary and part and parcel of dream.
Their prAmANikatA is not because of pramA-mUlakatva but on account of being
abAdhita-artha-vishayakatva.

You can have imaginations within imaginations ad infinitum. As long as it
is abAdhita-artha-vishayaka, there is no harm to the correctness of the
object indicated by that imagination. For e.g. you can dream 2+2 = 4. It
will still be correct even if it is dream. You can dream that (Ram = Ram).
It will be correct despite being imagination.


> ( e) if sampradaya is a mute thing in EJV and jnAnOtpatti can happen on
> its own without any sAmpradAyik teaching or guru-shishya paraMpara, why on
> the earth advaita sampradaya giving undue importance to sampradaya??  OK,
> if we argue it is from the platform of SDV meant only for nAnA jeeva
> vAdins, then what is the route map for the EJ to realize that he is ekaM
> and there is no dviteeyaM when he considers everything apart from him is
> just his imagination and eulogy (arthavAda)??
>

sampradAya is not a mute thing in EJV. It is imaginary. jnAnotpatti happens
through shravaNa-manana-nididhyAsana involving shrotriya BrahmanishTha guru
etc which are firmly put in place through imagination.

advaita gives undue importance to sampradAya in SDV framework and not in
DSV. In ajAti, there is no sampradAya itself. And please note that real
advaita is ajAtivAda only.

(f)  And finally is this AS or any other works of MS just there to
> propagate Advaita siddhAnta, pratipAdana and sAdhana without caring much
> about sampradaya and sampradaya Acharya-s??  Are these works just an
> attempt of justifying Advaita and saving it from the objections of
> dvaitins??  This is my genuine query as I am not familiar with any of the
> works of MS as I have read Sri Vidya prabhuji's opinion in this list itself
> that Sri MS deviated from shankara's mUlabhAshya when presenting his
> prakriya.   And incidentally Sri Venkataraghavan prabhuji also confirmed
> works like AS just polemics and not recommended or not required as a
> mandatory work in Advaita to study.


AS is very methodically based on BhAshya, VArtika and VivaraNa. It closely
follows ChitsukhI. I have not found better presentation of concepts than in
Advaita-Siddhi. It is only after struggling through AS that one begins to
appreciate the MAhAtmya of VivaraNa.

Regards.