Anant Sarma
Forum Replies Created
-
AuthorPosts
-
Anant Sarma
ParticipantHari Om!
The sound and smell that you are talking about as examples are all at the grossest level. When the sequence of creation is explained in the scriptures we go from causal to subtle to gross. Space is the first subtle element that is born and the quality of that that space is said to be space. Do not mix up the scientific explanations that look at the world only at the grossest level with the subtler ideas that are conveyed in the scriptures.
With regard to your question on smell, all that smell is associated with the pollutants in the air and not with air per se. So you cannot attribute the sense of smell to air.
ParticipantHari Om!
Not really, not that specifically.
Arjuna’s arguments in the context of the first chapter were all motivated by his not wanting to fight. The evil effects of destruction of family values are there, no doubt and we have to make sure such things do not happen. Death, devastation and destruction of wars are definitely bad. However, in the context of Mahabharata war, there is a higher goal of establishing dharma, righteousness in society. The importance of protecting dharma is brought out in the fourth chapter. Other points like doing one’s duty are also brought out in the other chapters.
ParticipantHari Om!
I think the question is either framed poorly or deliberately trying to trick the student.
Assuming the teacher is trying to make sure that the student has really understood the point that a jnani identifies with the atma only and not the anatma, the question is making an observation, that both jnani and ajnani are suffering externally meaning at the body, mind, intellect levels.
From the multiple choice of answers, 1,3,4 and 5, one should deduce that only the ajnani would suffer and the jnani would not. So the correct choice is only 2, because as long as prarabdha continues, regardless of whether one is a jnani or an ajnani, the person has to go through experiences.
ParticipantThe reference to ‘samatvam yogam ucyate’ is tenuous. Samatvam in the verse of Gita, 2.50, is the equanimity or equipoise of the mind to the pairs of opposites that one experiences in life. The ekatva anbubhava is the vision of oneness, the Self in me is the Self of all beings, and is dealt with again in Gita in the 6th chapter verses 29 and 30. Please refer to the discussions on the cited verses for more clarity.
ParticipantHari Om!
Please let me know what the other choices for answer are. One of the other choices may be a better choice.
ParticipantHari Om!
The conditioning mentioned refers to the reflected consciousness and not the pure Consciousness that is described as sad-cid-ananda. The conditioning is at the microcosm level, the vyashti or the individual and its quality is determined by the quality of the reflecting medium. The reflecting medium being malina sattva pradhana, it is limited; it is inferior.
ParticipantHari Om!
You should not take it literally as atma being killed. For the ignorant person the atma is covered by tamas. That is figuratively described as atma hati.
ParticipantThe sadhaka should practice the appropriate sadhanas. First one should gain the necessary qualifications for this purpose. That involves the recognizing finite nature, the unreal nature of everything in the world and asking if there is anything that is infinite and real. With proper discrimination, you should develop a dispassion for the finite. Other disciplines of mastery over the senses, mind, withdrawal from the world of objects, having faith in the words of scriptures and so on must be enhanced. An intense desire for moksha should be there. This set of qualifications is what is called sadhana catushtaya sampatti. This can be gained through karma yoga which gives the purity of mind. Other spiritual practices such as japa, upasana will give focus of mind. With a pure and focused mind, one can embark upon the jnana marga, the path of knowledge which consists of sravana, manana and nididhyasana. Thus you gain the knowledge and get established in it.
ParticipantNeed a little bit more clarity. This mantra still talks about a sadhaka only. He is not realized. He is working on gaining jnana yogyata by performing selfless action.
ParticipantContinuing with my answer,
if the jnana yoga sadhana gives knowledge and that gives you liberation which is the sadhyam, the relationship is sadhana sadhya sambandha. Like that there are different types sambandha.
ParticipantHari Om!
In deep sleep, the body, senses and the mind are not functioning. Therefore there is no experience of the world and objects therein. That is one type of ignorance.
The other type of ignorance is not knowing our true nature, what we call as the ignorance of the Self.
Yet in that state the cit, the pure Consciousness, that is also sat, Existence is there and it sustains an ati-sukshma, extremely subtle thought of ‘I know nothing.’ This is how that experience is captured.
One side note, the state of bliss, it is atma ananda, but only the experience of no suffering because the experience of the external world is not there because senses and the mind are not functioning during deep sleep.
ParticipantHari Om!
You are spot on. In fact Mandukya Karika is an exposition on this idea and Gaudapadacharya has used the dream elaborately drive home the point the waking state is nothing but a dream. We all readily appreciate the falsity of the dream relative to waking state. Extending that, the so called waking state, relative to the Absolute Reality, is also false. To see everybody as ourselves is but one of the consequences of understanding waking state as dream; it has much deeper significance.
ParticipantIn the case of a jivanmukta, the three bodies continue because of prarabdha. The body has the individuality. The jnani does not identify with the body and therefore we do not speak of individuality for the jnani. The jnani is identified only with Atman, Brahman which advitiyam and therefore there is no question of individuality for the jivanmukta.
ParticipantIt is just an idiomatic usage. Just like you have an altar in your puja room and you have your personal God placed in the altar and you do the puja offering flowers or naivedyam, here you offer your ego. It could be to your ista devata, to a higher ideal, to the ultimate Reality. When you surrender your ego in this manner, everything you do will be selfless action and such selfless action as a worship in this manner purifies your mind. This is the first part of definition of karma yoga. This is what is meant by giving up one’s ego at the altar of a higher authority.
ParticipantHari Om!
Q1: I do not know what you mean by Bhatta-Prabhakara because Bhatta and Prabhakara are two groups under mimamsaka.
The bhaṭṭa school says, the consciousness conditioned by the (individual) ignorance is the Self citing scripture such as “prajñā (consciousness conditioned by the individual ignorance) alone is the bliss sheath” (Māṇḍū U 5); because in deep sleep there is the knowledge and there is ignorance, and also because of experience such as ‘I do not know me’.
The prabhākara (school of mīmāmsa) and tārkika-s (nyāya and vaiśeṣika schools) say, the absence of knowledge (ajñāna, the ignorance) is the Self citing scripture such as “there is the bliss sheath that is the Self different and more internal (to the intellect)”, (Tai Up 2.5.1); also because ajñāna, the ignorance is the resolution place of the intellect and the others (all instruments), and also because of experience such as ‘I am ignorant’ and ‘I am an ignorant person’ and so on.
I have cited above paragraphs from Vedanta Sara. The Mandukya Karika is another reference that gives more clarity on these topics.
Q2: The stark contrast in Jaina school of philosophy says that atma, the Self are many. There is an atma in each jiva. They also say the size of that atma is the size of the body that embodies that atma.
-
AuthorPosts
