[Advaita-l] : Sankhya and Yoga can give Moksha?

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Fri Jun 15 11:57:16 CDT 2012


On Fri, Jun 15, 2012 at 2:49 PM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> Such Great Ones do not become affected by their actions, of whatever
> nature.
>
> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> Alongwith these lines, the additional note that we have to keep is, the
> jnAni does not engage himself in doing any dharma bAhira / shAstra
> viruddha activities just because he has realized that he is  neither katru
> nor bhoktru.  shankara clarifies this in sUtra/shruti bhAshya somewhere,
> yathA kAmitvaM tu vidushO atyantaM aprAptaM because atyanta
> avivekanimittaM yathAkAmitvaM clarifies shankara.  So, jnAni though is
> paramArtha jnAni and no rules like vidhi / nishedha restricts him, he
> never ever violates the prakruti dharma in general, his/her Ashrama dharma
> in particular.



That is fine.  But what Shankara says above should be understood bearing
this also in mind:

In the BG 13.23 we have the teaching of the complete absence of any
possibility of the mukta being born again. Here a word 'sarvathA
vartamAnopi' ['howsoever he may behave'] is used in the verse. Shankara
comments: sarvaprakAreNa vartamAnopi: in whatever way he behaves. The
commentator Dhanapati Suri 'bhAShyotkarShadIpikA' which brings out the
excellence of the Acharya's bhashya clarifies: even if he were to
transgress the rules of his varna and ashrama...

Also these words of Shankara from the BSB 4..3.15 and Sureshwara from the
Naishkarmya siddhi 1.80 :

sunipuNAnAmapi sUkShmAparAdha-darshanAt [For, subtle lapses are noticed in
the case of the most careful men.]

There is a Tamil saying: 'yAnaikkum aDi sarukkum' (Even an elephant is
prone to
place a mis-step and slip).

These only show that according to the Scripture there is a possibility,
however remote it might be, for a Jnani to transgress dharma.  And for
Shankara, we have seen, a Jnani is predominantly is a Sannyasi.  It could
be for a variety of reasons, put together under the common name:
prArabdha.  The Bhagavatam verses (dharma vyatikramo dRShTaH...tejIyasAm..)
and the other references are only demonstrations of this.

It is in spite of these teachings that the Scripture, especially the
Bhagavadgita talks about the sthitaprajna.  It is despite such rare
happenings the prajnA of the Jnani is sthita.  Also it is to be known that
the lakshanas are given not to test someone else but to see if they are
existing in oneself.  He never expects loka to accept whatever he does.  If
he does that he is still under lokavAsanA.  The lokAnuvartanam is of the
good and dhArmic of the Jnani alone and not everything he does.  The
Taittiriya says: yAni asmAkam sucharitAni tAni sevitavyAni, no itarANi.

One can possibly argue that the Shankaravijayam episode is not a case of
dharma vyatikrama.  It was Bhagavan Shiva in the form of the Acharya.  I am
allowing for such an interpretation.  What I have stated above is on the
lines of 'even if it is seen as a dharma vyatikrama....'

Regards,
subrahmanian.v



>  Because he is the role model, whatever he does, mass will
> follow it.  yad yadAcharati shreshtaH....sa yat pramANam kurute
> lOkastadanuvartate clarifies lord in geeta.  If that is not the case and
> if the jnAni is under the delusion that whatever action he does is okay
> for him & expects lOka also to accept it any reservation,
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>



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