Is there 'light' in Enlightenment? (Sept. 03 discussion topic)

[Guest guest]

Namaste Benji and Ramlalji.

 

Ref: Your posts # 18875 and 18876.

 

Enlightenment understood as Self-realization in advaita is one's

becoming Knowledge whereby all knowledges are as well known.

(Dennisji - please don't take exception with the verb 'become').

 

So, in essence, Enlightenment is transcendence from apparent

deficiencies and efficiencies (of humans and other species) and not

limited to a feeling of oneness and bliss which are objectifiable.

There is, therefore, more to Enlightenment than a happy,

accommodating, smiling, one-with-everything behaviour.

 

To us in the transactional, an Enlightened one may fit very well with

that description, but is it as simple as that is the question asked.

How do we answer then when we have no choice but to describe by

making apparently contradictory descriptions to suggest the

impossibility of describing? The only solution then is to sit and

chant from Soundrya Lahari and contemplate:

 

avidyAnAmantastimiramihiradwIpanagarI

jadAnAm chaitanyastabakamakarandasrutinJarI

daridrAnAm cintamaNiguNanikA janmajaladhou

nimagnAnAm damshtrA muraripuvarAhasya bhavati!

 

(No translation is provided as I am totally incompetent to do that!

Or for that matter, can anybody ever do that?)

 

Here, the ignorant, the dull-witted (even with all accredited

efficiences!), poor and those lost in the sea of unending samsAra of

life and death - all these terms refer to us. The rest of each line

describes Her - the inner light - who destroys all that are imposed

by us on us.

 

The overriding reference to brilliance in this verse, apart from the

sweetness of honey, looks like a deliberate attempt by the poet in

Sankara to emphasize the revealing nature of all-consuming Knowledge

and very significant to our understanding of L.I.E.

 

[i haven't been following the Soundarya Lahari discussions of late

for want of time. Grateful if Prof. Krishnamurthyji can elaborate on

this verse with reference to our topic of discussion.]

 

When descriptions fail, only She, the inner light, is there for our

rescue. Words and dscriptions end at Her Feet. In our endeavour

here, therefore, we are only doing a pooja to those Feet with our in

capable words. May we all have Her Grace.

 

PraNAms.

 

Madathil Nair