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-From RANGASWAMY Tue May 21 06:41 PDT 1996

-

-Dear Raghu,

-

-The conduct of an enlightened person is testimony of

-his erudition and scholarship. Due to the law of Karma every

-individual is associated with the tri-Gunas. Broadly speaking,

-there are times when each individual exhibits Brahma-Bhavam (experience

-of the Divine) and Karma Bhavam (materialistic longings).

-During the times of Brahma Bhavam is when the individual is able

-to rise above Rajo and Tamo Gunams. This is when the individual can

-recognize the enlightenment of another person because, the Antaryami

-form of the Lord helps him. However, when Karma Bhavam takes

-possession, the individual becomes steeped in Rajo and Tamo gunams.

-Therefore, all naturally endowed knowledge is masked and the individual

-engages in material pursuits.

-

-Best Wishes,

-

-Muralidhar Rangaswamy

 

I thank you for your reply.

 

However, I can anticipate my friend's reaction

to this. He will summarize this answer thus -

in order to recognize an enlightened man,

you need to be one yourself. While the logic

of this is obvious to me, it is open to

the following sceptical query - " what about the

first enlightened man ? How did he convince

others that he was enlightened ? Obviously

by definition no one else was enlightened.

So how did they recognize that he was

enlightened" ?

 

I am not imagining this - he has already

come up with such queries. I await further

elucidation on this tricky matter.

 

Regards,

Raghu Seshadri

 

ps - there is a quote by Guru Nanak which

says exactly the same thing that you did,

Mr Muralidhar. ' Brahma jnani ko brahma

jnani hi jane ' = Only a brahma jnani

knows another.