01-25-2005, 08:24 PM
Sunder, The "asti" versus "asmi" difference in the mahvakya "aham brahmasmi" was a nice one.
Gangajal,
Let me throw in a view from Kashmir Shaivism:
People have a hard time explaining the 'Jivanmukta' state. A person while living in body, performing all his worldly functions, but 'mukta' or liberated, merged in the supreme consciousness is called 'Jivanmukta' (emancipated while living).
It is natural for people to have some doubts about the 'mukta' state of a person if he/she still appears to be in body etc.
But many saints, do appear to be in both the worlds so to speak. Even Shri Ramakrishna was reportedly asked by Mother Kali, to not get lost in mukti, but be at the 'border state' where both supreme and worldly consciousness can simultaneously be kept.
But if we follow advaita, such a jivanmukta state is hard to explain. You are either in the realm of multiplicity of maya or in the realm of unity of brahman. You can't be in both simultaneously.
Kashmir shaivism mentions a mechanism which would explain this state while not violating the advaitic basics.
There an oscillatory consciousness of special type is mentioned. In one phase of the oscillation, the person is in 'unity' consciousness, while in the other phase he/she is in the 'worldly' consciousness of multiplicity. So, although strictly speaking that person is never in both these states simultaneously, but due to this 'oscillatory' consciousness, for all practical purposes he/she is. One moment aware of the world, next merged in the absolute, repitetively.
I thought this was an ingenious explanation, evidently grounded in meditative experience.
It is like an oscillatory flow of consciousness along the upside down ashwattha tree, root of which is brahman, and branches other beings. This allows the consciousness to reach the root in one phase, while drop down to many branches in the next.
This may be one way how 'Narayana' could be explained from within advaita. Narayana can be the universal consciousness/being with an oscillatory consciousness, which in one phase is conscious of the root (unity of the brahman), and in next phase conscious of ALL the branches (whole multiplicity of the jivas).
Gangajal,
Let me throw in a view from Kashmir Shaivism:
People have a hard time explaining the 'Jivanmukta' state. A person while living in body, performing all his worldly functions, but 'mukta' or liberated, merged in the supreme consciousness is called 'Jivanmukta' (emancipated while living).
It is natural for people to have some doubts about the 'mukta' state of a person if he/she still appears to be in body etc.
But many saints, do appear to be in both the worlds so to speak. Even Shri Ramakrishna was reportedly asked by Mother Kali, to not get lost in mukti, but be at the 'border state' where both supreme and worldly consciousness can simultaneously be kept.
But if we follow advaita, such a jivanmukta state is hard to explain. You are either in the realm of multiplicity of maya or in the realm of unity of brahman. You can't be in both simultaneously.
Kashmir shaivism mentions a mechanism which would explain this state while not violating the advaitic basics.
There an oscillatory consciousness of special type is mentioned. In one phase of the oscillation, the person is in 'unity' consciousness, while in the other phase he/she is in the 'worldly' consciousness of multiplicity. So, although strictly speaking that person is never in both these states simultaneously, but due to this 'oscillatory' consciousness, for all practical purposes he/she is. One moment aware of the world, next merged in the absolute, repitetively.
I thought this was an ingenious explanation, evidently grounded in meditative experience.
It is like an oscillatory flow of consciousness along the upside down ashwattha tree, root of which is brahman, and branches other beings. This allows the consciousness to reach the root in one phase, while drop down to many branches in the next.
This may be one way how 'Narayana' could be explained from within advaita. Narayana can be the universal consciousness/being with an oscillatory consciousness, which in one phase is conscious of the root (unity of the brahman), and in next phase conscious of ALL the branches (whole multiplicity of the jivas).