FORMAL SANNYASA IS IT PREREQUISIT TO JIVAN MUKTI??/Uparamah

[Guest guest]

Uparamah is in a sense sannyasa, but by uparamah

we mean that this Knowledge is the most important

thing to you. Everything else is secondary.

That is really the meaning of uparamah. If I put

it more into a layman's definition, it would be,

my ability focus for a prolonged period of time

on one topic.

 

For instance, say now I am interested in studying

Sanskrit, and that interest lasts about a month.

Now I am interested in studying this, or doing

this, and that interest lasts about month.

In other words, I cannot sustain my interest

in something. That is lack of uparamah.

 

It is the ability to be interested in something,

be it a sport, or a profession, or a subject

which you are studying, the ability to stay

with something. That is the layman's understanding

of uparamah, and it is applicable here. But here,

uparamah really is in reference to this Knowledge.

 

Liberation, moksha, fulfilling, maturing completely

in this Knowledge, is my primary focus. And it is

not, "Oh, we'll do this for a few months," or after

a few months, "Oh, this is boring, we won't do this

now." If this Knowledge just becomes one of many

things, that is not uparamah.

 

In life, you are doing many things which can be

important to you. For instance, your career, your

family, shopping. Life. So it is not to say that

you should only be doing Vedanta and forget about

the day-to-day life. Forget about your career.

That is not it.

 

It is that what is primary, in terms of what you

are about, and what is important to you is

Self-knowledge, liberation, moksha. And everything

else that you do, (it is not that it is not

important), but it is secondary. That this is first.

 

When this is so, every single thing that you do

becomes a sadhana for gaining nistha in your

Knowledge. Everything becomes a sadhana for that,

as in the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna calls it the Kurukshetra,

the field of experience.

 

Everything, every experience that you have,

every single thing that you do is something

which helps you to gain nistha in your Knowledge.

Your see your experience in light of your Knowledge.

You see your experience in light of your maturing.

Your Knowledge becomes primary, and everything else

is secondary.

 

Otherwise, if that is not so, and Knowledge is

just one of the things. You are not a mumukshu,

because there are other things of equal importance.

 

So uparamah means that what is absolutely central

and primary to my every breath is Knowledge, and

the maturing into that Knowledge. That is my highest

value. That is uparamah.

[Guest guest]

advaitin, "Durga" <durgaji108> wrote:

>

> Uparamah is in a sense sannyasa, but by uparamah

> we mean that this Knowledge is the most important

> thing to you.

> So uparamah means that what is absolutely central

> and primary to my every breath is Knowledge, and

> the maturing into that Knowledge. That is my highest

> value. That is uparamah.

 

Namaste,

 

The specific meaning for uparama/uparati is "coming to

rest; desisting from sensory objects".

 

It is one of the six virtues (in shamAdi-ShaTka-sampatti)

of the 4 prerequisites for Vedanta study (sAdhanA-chatuShTaya -

besides viveka, vairAgya, mumukShutvam), namely : shama, dama,

uparama, titikShA, shraddhA, and samAdhAna.

 

Gita has used this word in verses 6:20 and 25.

 

 

Regards,

 

Sunder