[Advaita-l] Eternal Loka

V Subrahmanian v.subrahmanian at gmail.com
Thu Nov 1 20:19:50 CDT 2012


On Fri, Nov 2, 2012 at 3:49 AM, Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com
> wrote:

>
>
> Regarding Sri Subrahmanian's point that the jnanam of the jnani is
> destroyed when the mind is. Does he then place bhakti, a mano vritti, at
> the same level as jnanam? Then I agree.


I had answered this already.  The manovRtti called 'jnaanam' or
akhanDAkAravRtti that arises and destroys avidyA also gets destroyed, even
while the jnani lives.  This is the admitted position of Advaita.  The
sarvAtmabhAva the jnani gets owing to aparoksha jnanam too remains in the
mind of the jnani alone. When the jnani dies after the prArabdhakarma ends,
the mind is dissolved and no longer there is a jnAni with a mind that holds
either the advaita aparoksha jnanam or sarvAtmabhAva, compassion towards
all beings, etc. This does not mean that he is no longer a mukta.  When the
aparoksha jnanam arose through that vRtti, then itself the avidyA that has
the potential to give him further births is (was) destroyed.  So upon the
death of the jnani (that is, the destruction of the sUkshmasharIra too)
there is no longer an entity called a mukta.  There is, was and will be
only the Adviteeya Brahman.

I hope the position of Advaita is clear.



> Otherwise, I will ask why bhakti is given a lower status though both
> bhakti and jnanam are only products of the mind?


Bhakti of the definition 'moksha sAdhana saamagryAm bhaktireva garIyasI.
svasvarUpAnusandhAnam bhaktirityabhidhIyate' of the VivekachUDAmaNi is what
is perhaps equated with (vRtti) jnAnam and not a kind of bhakti directed
towards another divine being.


> Secondly, if we destroy the mirror that reflected the sun, will we
> say the sun is destroyed? If bhakti and jnanam are accepted as reflection
> of Brahmananda on the mind, albeit through different processes, then the
> destruction of the mind at death will be akin to destruction of only the
> mirror.
>

It has been clarified earlier too that the svarUpajnAnam (jnapti or
objectless Pure Consciousness) that is what Brahman is never gets
destroyed.  Nor is it something that is to be acquired by a jiva; every
jiva is already That whether one realizes it or not.  It is only the vRtti
jnAnam that arises in the mind that gets destroyed after destroying the
avidyA and all notion of duality.  The very sarvAtmabhAva which the mind
carries is no longer there for the jnAni to experience after death
(destruction of the mind) since there is no entity called a jnani after the
fall of the body.  Also there is nothing that can be called 'sarva - the
totality of plurality that can be experienced when there is no mind-body
apparatus any longer.  What the vRtti does is only destroy the avidyA which
barred the jiva from claiming that he is Brahman indeed.   A bhaktirasa
which the mind experiences too will cease to be experienced as the
experiencing mind is no longer there.  If by Bhaktirasa is meant Brahman
(just like svarUpajnAnam (jnapti) is only Brahman), then there will be no
objection to such a 'rasa' (which is a technical term used by the
particular author to connote Brahman, perhaps based on the shruti 'raso vai
saH').  In any case the experiencer of such a rasa cannot be admitted to
continue as a separate entity from Brahman/BhagavAn in mukti too.

regards
subrahmanian.v



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