Re: 'Akshara' etc. in the BhG
From the Bhakti List Archives
• April 16, 2002
Dear Martin, Iam not objecting to your understanding of 'prakriti-samsrishta' as 'embodied'.What iam objecting is to the usage of the term "Dis-incarnate" instead of "embodied" in BhG 3.35 in the source which you quote from.If "Dis-incarnate" and "embodied" are understood as same i.e to mean "embodied" then there is no problem,otherwise it will mean that sankya yoga cannot be practised by an embodied being i.e soul or purusha identified to its embodiment due to its karma and can only be practised by an "Dis-incarnate being" i.e a purusha free from all this,if thats what you mean by the term?. What Archarya Ramanuja says is that "sankya yoga is difficult to practise by an embodied soul even though it is qualified to practise the same" because it is "still vulnerable to Rajo guna" even at this stage. This concept is made clear in the last few slokhas of 3rd chapter by Sri Krishna to Arjuna when arjuna asks sri krishna about the reason why even persons advanced to the stage of sankya fall from their positions. This however does not mean that sankya yoga "can never be practised by an embodied soul" and the conclusion that only "Dis-incarnate or avatara purusas" can practise it will damage the context of the chapter and also limit the powers of the jiva only as suitable to karma yoga,when in fact it goes beyond sankya yoga into Bhakti yoga to be ultimatley similar to Lord himself(of course by his grace) as the lord himself mentions at many places for example in chapter 4,10 th slokha. vita-raga-bhaya-krodha man-maya mam upasritah bahavo jnana-tapasa puta mad-bhavam agatah Hope it is clear.Please write your comments about the same.Any errors above are mine. Sri Krishnaarpanamasthu Suresh B.N. --- Martin Ganstenwrote: > Dear Suresh, > > Thank you for your lengthy mail. If I understand you > correctly, you object > to my understanding of 'prakriti-samsrishta' as > 'embodied'. You may of > course be correct -- the word in itself means only > 'united with [material] > nature -- but I am not alone in this understanding > (cf. Lester, 'Ramanuja > on the Yoga'). You will note, also, that in his > bhashya to BhG 15.15, > Ramanuja makes use of a near-identical phrase, in > the compound > jiva-shabda-abhilapaniya-brahma-adi-stamba-paryanta-ksharana-svabhava-acit-s > amsrishta-sarva-bhutani 'all creatures united with > insentient [matter, and] > denoted by the term jiva, from Brahma to a clump of > grass'. This certainly > sound as though acit- or prakriti-samsrishta should > be taken in the sense > of embodiment. > > Regards, > MG > __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------- - SrImate rAmAnujAya namaH - To Post a message, send it to: bhakti-list@yahoogroups.com Group Home: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bhakti-list Archives: http://ramanuja.org/sv/bhakti/archives/ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
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