Fwd: mOksha/ Self Realization According to Shankara Bhagavadpada

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advaitin , bhaskar.yr wrote:

 

 

praNAms

Hare Krishna

 

I am forced to write this after seeing the floating mails about

*self-realization* & its interpretation mainly quoting later

commentators'

works like bhAmati/vivaraNa and sporadic & selected out of context

very

few quotes from shankara's works & ofcourse with abundant sarcastic

remarks

on others who dont endorse these interpretations. Kindly dont think

this

is a castigatory mail against those interpretations, this is only an

humble

attempt to share my part of understanding of the subject matter

depending

upon works of my parama guruji Sri Satchidanandendra Saraswati, who

in

turn solely depended on our advaita paramAchArya Sri Shankara

bhagavadpujyapAda's commentary on prasthAna traya. It is also to be

noted

that this is not an attempt to show how later vyAkhyAnakAra-s diluted

the

teachings of shankara but it's been written just to show how shankara

deals with this topic in his own works.

 

First of all, we should keep in mind what our advaita AchArya

ultimately

offers us with regard to self realization & socalled bondage of jIva,

spiritual practice etc.. Sri GaudapAdAchArya in his kArika (2-32)

categorically asserts :

 

//there is no dissolution, no creation either; no one in bondage and

no one

who makes an effort to get free; no one longing for release and none

that

has become free. This is the ultimate truth. //

 

bhagavadpAd while commenting on this kArika says when all duality is

unreal

and the Atman alone is real then it has been concluded that all this

human

procedure both mundane (loukika) and scriptural (vaidika) is wholly

in the

sphere of avidyA. There being neither creation nor dissolution the

one

truth is that there are no persons bound by saMsAra etc.

 

This being the case, how can we say, jnAnOtpatti / Atma jnAna ( dawn

of

ultimate knowledge) is a time bound abrupt experience *even* for the

jnAni

who has realized the above in its entirety ?? All the shruti-s employ

various means as devices and aim at conducing to the self

enlightenment/realization that to vijnAnamaya, who is seemingly a

transmigratory soul from the stand-point of the unwise (avidyaka

vyavahAra). It is improper to say in vyavahAra brahman has the

avidyA, no

problem with that etc. etc. vyavahAra starts only with jIva

bhAva/pramAtrutva, dragging brahman, the ultimate reality of vEdAnta

to

this region & enveloping it with avidyA is quite absurd & contrary to

shruti declaration. Because, shruti says Atman is great, unborn,

free from

old age, free from death, immortal, fearless...He who knows this

indeed

becomes verily this fearless brahman (bruhadAraNyaka upanishad) etc.

 

From the above, it is quite evident that the *socalled* jIva in avidyA

vyavahAra is bound which wants *socalled* liberation from the avidyA

saMsAra...it is to be noted here that if we accept that there are two

separate entities called jIva & brahma, then only the distinction of

ruler

and the ruled is true and it invariably follows that jIva who is in

bondage

seeks release from this bondage etc. Shruti also endorses this

empirical

view and declares " the helpless individual Atman is bound on account

of

being an experiencer of fruit of action. But by knowing that ever

shining

one (paramAtman) however, he will be freed from all bonds "

(svetAshvara

upanishad). Shruti statements like this teach us in a clear manner

that

knowledge of the true nature of Atman alone can release the soul,

thereby

it is implying that it is *avidyA* only that binds the jIvAtman.

prashna

upanishad further confirms this the cause of saMsAra is *avidyA* and

nothing else, once it gives way the realization automatically

happens..bharadvAja gratefully says here after worshipping

pippalAda " Thou

art indeed our real father for thou hast taken us across our

*ignorance*

(avidyA) to the other shore.

 

Shankara, by following these upanishadic purports, clears his stand

on the

doctrine of mOksha/Atma jnAna/self realization in the long running

*tattu

samanvayAt* sUtra bhAshya wherein he asserts

 

" this nature of saMsAra (mundane life) the ephemeral experience of

pleasure and pain of changing degress by assuming different bodies

due to

gradation of meritorious and unmeritorious deeds of beings subject to

defects like *avidyA* is well known from shruti-s, smruti-s and

reasoning.

Accordingly the shruti reaffirms this nature of saMsAra as described

above

when it says *there is indeed no freedom from the oppression of

pleasure

and pain for a being so long as it is embodied* (chAndOgya shruti) and

since contact of pleasure and pain is denied for the liberated one by

shruti *pleasure and pain indeed do not touch one who is without a

body*

(chAndOgya shruti) it can be inferred that unembodiedness called

mOksha is

not an effect of meritorious deeds which are known through the vEdic

injuctions "

 

From the above it is quite evident that accroding to shankara self

realization is nothing but removal of ignorance. Shankara does not

say

here removal of ignorance is mere vrutti vyApti & it requires further

one

step phalavyApti to attain the ultimate...neither he declares here

this

*self realization * is an event and abrupt experience in a split

second of

time like a shock :-))...On the other hand, in this same sUtra

bhAshya he

further confirms the *immediate release* as soon as enlightenment

dawns

(again dont pick me for saying *as soon as* enlightenment dawns

etc...it is

language limitation that we have to say that figuratively).. He says :

 

Moreover, shrutis like these point out that mOksha accrues

*immediately*

after the dawn of knowledge of brahman and thus precludes the

necessity for

anything else to be done in the interval before release.

 

From the above it is clear there is no *time gap* between two fold

vrutti

vyApti and phala vyApti and gradation of knowledge is NOT shankara's

baby

:-)).

 

Without giving any importance to these teachings of shankara, people

often

think that final release or self realization is an effect & it is an

abrupt, peculiar, special experience of some noble souls in an exalted

state...If this realization presumed to be the disappearance or

destruction

of the *actually existing* jIva nature in an abrupt flash experience,

and

that nature is being an agent of action and reaping the fruit &

experience

the state of non duality in a particular time frame, then it would be

against all reason to say that the *nature* is removable by the

performance

of some rigorous act of religious discipline is it not?? That is why

shankara says in sUtra bhAshy " vidyA is not of a nature to be

enjoined and

the result of vidyA is not the effect of anything *done*...

 

It is already getting lengthy let me conclude this. Finally,

according to

shruti/shankara vEdAnta, brahman is the ultimate reality of this

universe,

which can be known only through upanishads. It is the self liminous

witness (sAkshin) & it is not an adventitious thing and the very self

of

all..There is no pramANa or means of right knowledge which can reveal

it

through the means of *flashy time bound experiences* in an exalted

state of

some individuals since no pramANa needed to prove its

existence...People

unable to understand this truth have propagated the theory of Atma

sAkshAtkAra, brahmAkAra vrutti etc. etc. for which they simply

imagine that

the practice of some severe meditation & flashy experience of *self*

etc.

etc. required...shruti crying at the top of its voice that

parabrahman is

nirvikAri (without any modification), niravayava (without any limbs),

nirAkAra (formless) nirguNa (attributeless)..despite knowing all

these we

are floating theories like brahmAkAra vrutti, Atma sAkshAtkAra etc.

etc.

without finding any adequate references from shankara's prasthAna

trayi

bhAshya.

 

I shall stop here & I hereby confirm that this is not an attack on

personal

beliefs of noble souls here in this list...this is what just I

thought when

I read *bhAshya viruddha* (against bhagavadpAda's commentary on

prasthAna

traya) assertions..

Kindly pardon me if at all I hurt anybody's sentiments.

 

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!

bhaskar

 

Reference :

 

(01) Shankara's sUtra bhAshya & bruhadAraNyaka bhAshya & mAndUkya/

kArika

bhAshya translated by my parama guruji Sri Sri Satchidaanandendra

Saraswati

in Kannada

 

(02) vEdAnta darshana, shankara hrudaya ... independent works in

Kannada by

my parama guruji.

 

(03) Salient features of Shankara's vEdAnta in English by my parama

guruji

 

(04) How to Recognise the Method of vEdAnta in English by my parama

guruji.

 

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