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Re: 'Akshara' etc. in the BhG

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bindinganavale suresh • April 12, 2002 


Dear Martin,
            You wrote :-
*******************************************************
>While I agree with your overall observation, can you
point out
>where Ramanuja says this about jnAna-yoga?  As I have
understood
>the bhAshya, Ramanuja only says that success in
jnAna-yoga is
>difficult and only possible for a very advanced
aspirant, but it
>is nonetheless possible.

You are quite right that this is the overall tenor of
Ramanuja's 
teaching;
the argument about jnanayoga not being for embodied 
(prakriti-samsrishta)
beings is an extreme example. I brought it up only to
illustrate a 
point.
It occurs in Ramanuja's bhashya on BhG 3.35.

Ramanuja Dasa,
MG
*******************************************************

The slokha of BhG 3.35 according to Gita Bhashya of
Acharya Ramanuja :-

sreyan sva-dharmo vigunah 
para-dharmat svanusthitat 
sva-dharme nidhanam sreyah 
para-dharmo bhayavahah

This slokha only means that persons qualified for
karmayoga and who are not advanced to the sankya stage
(even though they do have a theoretical knowledge of
the self and body which is a pre-requisite even for
starting karmayoga)are safe and will not be doing harm
to themselves if they follow karma yoga itself because
their inherent nature i.e the prakriti guna
combinations with which they are associated at that
time is suitable for karmayoga and obviously if they
try to imitate a sankya yogi(whose intellect easily 
goes to his self than to the thoughts of his
body),they
will be inviting spiritual downfall rather than
spiritual advancement. 

The above can be understood from the context of slokha
33 and 34 of the same chapter.

Also the 3rd chapter begins with the confusion of
Arjuna about the means to be adopted i.e whether karma
or sankya(gnana) yoga.He even shifts the source of his
confusion to Sri Krishna.Sri Krishna in turn starts to
explain that there are two paths leading to self
realization i.e karma and sankya,the later being an 
advanced stage of the former in the true sense and not
all embodied beings i.e souls attached to sense
objects
through senses are immediatley qualified to practise
sankya even though it is close to their true nature.

Having understood all this right from the beginning of

3rd chapter related to an embodied being at different
levels of embodiment i.e prakriti guna combinations,to
say that 35th slokha talks of gnana or sankya yoga as
a means adopted by an "disincarnate being" and not an
embodied soul is "illogical from the context of the
chapter" and Acharya Ramanuja has never given such a
meaning.Please refer Gita Bhashya of Ramanuja by M.A.
Sampatkumaran or the one published by Ramakrishna
mission.

Dear Martin,I liked your explainations for the term
akshara,kutastha etc. signifying the soul in its true
state according to Sri.Ramanuja's school of thought.

I hope the above explaination clarifies your doubt.Any
errors above are mine.Please feel free to write to me
your comments about the same.

Sri Krishnaarpanamasthu
Suresh B.N.




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