[Advaita-l] Commentary on Ramana's Forty Verses

[S Jayanarayanan]

 Akilesh Ayyar ayyar at akilesh.com wrote:
 
> Another unequivocal Ramana quote. Let's not do Bhagavan the disservice of
> suggesting he's lying to his disciple in response to a direct question:
> 
> D: Can a married man realise the Self?
> M: Certainly. Married or unmarried, a man can realise the Self; because
> That is here and now. If it were not
> so, but attainable by some effort at some time, and if it were new and had
> to be acquired, it would not be worth pursuit. Because, what is not natural
> is not permanent either. But what I say is that the Self is here and now,
> and alone.
> 
> (Maharishi's Gospel, Book 1, Chapter 1)
> 
 
No doubt anyone can attain Atma-GYAna, but that does equate directly to the sthita-praGYa state.
The distinction between GYAnimAtra and sthitapraGYa is the very essence of the jIvanmuktiviveka
by Swami Vidyaranya, who gives examples of householders who attained Atma-GYAna but not jIvanmukti,
e.g. yAGYavalkya, Janaka, durvAsa, etc. The summary is found here:
 
https://lists.advaita-vedanta.org/archives/advaita-l/2009-February/021329.html
 
Ramana Bhagavan talks about the distinction between attaining Self-knowledge and *steadiness*
in Self-knowledge several times:
 
Talks with Ramana Maharshi, # 562
 
 Q: There is a statement in the book Vichara Sangraha that though a 
 person realises the Self once, he cannot, for that simple reason 
 alone, become a mukta. He continues to remain a victim of vasanas 
 (latencies). Sri Bhagavan was asked whether the realisation referred
 to was the same as the jnani's, and if so why there should be a 
 difference in their effects.
 
 M.: The experience is the same. Every person experiences the Self 
 consciously or unconsciously. The ajnani's experience is clouded by
 his latencies whereas the jnani's is not so. The jnani's experience
 of the Self is therefore distinct and permanent. A practiser may by
 long practice gain a glimpse of the Reality. This experience may be
 vivid for the time being. And yet he will be distracted by the old 
 vasanas and so his experience will not avail him. Such a man must 
 continue his manana and nididhyasana so that all the obstacles may 
 be destroyed. He will then be able to remain permanently in the Real 
 State.
 
---
 
Talks with Ramana Maharshi, # 289
 
 M.: Some extraordinary persons get drdha jnana (unshaken knowledge)
 even on hearing the Truth only once (sakrchhravana matrena).
 Because they are krthopasakah (advanced seekers), whereas the
 akrthopasakah (raw seekers) take longer to gain drdha jnana
 (unshaken knowledge).
 
---
 
Talks with Ramana Maharshi, # 95
 
 M.: The seekers fall into two classes; kritopasaka and
 akritopasaka. The former having already overcome his
 predisposition by steady devotion, his mind thus made pure,
 has had some kind of experience but does not comprehend it;
 as soon as instructed by a competent master, permanent
 experience results.
 The other class of seeker needs great effort to
 achieve this end.
 
---
 
The above is exactly what Swami Vidyaranya calls the state of the GYAnimAtra.
 
Regards,
Kartik