About Different Paths and  Mukthi                                                  previous 

    For the realisation one has to take to bhakti, devotion or to jnana, listening to the Vedantic texts from a guru and deep reflection. In both karma and yoga one tacitly assumes that the phenomenal world is real. With this firm belief he cannot go beyond the phenomenal world and duality. In jnana the whole world is nothing other than Brahma, and in bhakti the devotee sees everything in the world as his beloved Lord.  (Gita 6.30). Thus seeing everything in God and God in everything both jnana and bhakti transcend duality and the phenomenal world.

    Until the truth is realised, a sadhaka has to follow the path preached by the guru and Scriptures. (Muktikopanishad II.31). Satsanga(company and service of holy men), is highly rewarding to sadhakas of all levels. Being in their proximity is like living in the light of jnana, because bliss and peace emanate from them.

     The company of holy men, even for a moment, serves as a boat to cross the ocean of samsara, says Bhagavan Sankaracharya .
    

     All the sadhana before the realisation is atdwaita level. Because duality persists in the phenomenal world and the sadhaka does not see unity in diverse world. So the sadhana he does is dual in nature even though the guru and the scriptures say it is non-dual. After long and arduous sadhana, heart gets thoroughly purified and in that blemishless heart he realises his own inner self as the non-dual all pervading Brahma. Realisation is not the experience of kundalini, not the chitta vritti nirodha, not jada samadhi, not seeing of luminous stars and blazing suns, not witnessing of heaven and other worlds, not knowing past and future, not acquiring siddhis or working miracles. All these are far short of realisation, at grossly dual level. The non-dual sadhana begins after realisation because he is convinced of it now. He tries to stay in that non-dual state as long as he can. Now theananya bhakti begins. Till now he was different from and external to the Lord, and all the time trying to reach Him as a separate entity. Now he has reached Him and become one with Him therefore the Lord isananya, non-different from his own inner self. The world including the devotee become non-different from the Lord. The Lord alone and nothing but the Lord exists, in ananya bhakti. He begins to see the Lord in everything and everything in the Lord. He cannot hurt anyone, because some one you hurt is your own self. Naturally you don't want to hurt yourself. Love-hatred, good and bad, high and low are at dual level in phenomenal world. When everything becomes one uniform non-dual Brahma(bhuma) he sees, hears, knows none other than himself. Therefore praise or censure of others will be the praise or censure of his own self. Just as the right hand cannot punish the left hand for some fault, so the jnani cannot punish some one else. Thus the essence ofsanatana dharma is summarised by the sage Vyasa in Padma Purana.

Listen to the essence of dharma and live according to it:

      Don't do unto others what is unpleasant if it is done to yourself.

      According to scriptures karma is of two kinds, prarabda andanarabda. The former is that which has taken into effect and is responsible for the present birth, while the later is that which is in store and will commence at a later stage. At the time of realisation the anarabda karma is destroyed, birth and death cycle is broken, the present being the last one, he gets no more births. However the prarabda karma continues as long as the present body lasts.(tasya taavadava chiram - Changdogya Up.6.14).

      The realised soul still has to attend to the basic needs of the physical body like eating, sleeping, bathing etc. He has to interact with ordinary people and the phenomenal world. Mind gets fully absorbed or dissolved and so finds peace when in samadhi but loses that peace when it comes out of it. Mind being a product of maya sees the world real and different from self. Though the ego has realised its unreality it still asserts and the past memories still persist in mind. Like the crystal ball reflecting every color near it, so does the phenomenal world reflect as real in mind when not in samadhi. So the realised soul still has to do sadhana. His sadhana is continuously dwelling in non-dual Brahma, in egoless, thoughtless state of perfect equanimity.

      After continuous and long practice ego and mind eventually get destroyed and the jnani is no more bothered by hunger, pain etc. At this stage he has destroyed prarabda karma and he becomes oblivious of body and the world, always dwelling in Brahma in Supreme bliss. He is now called jeevanmukta, fully liberated even while in a body. He may live for a short while for the benefit of the world in this jeevanmukta state and then merge fully with Brahma when the body falls.

      A realised soul continuing his sadhana but not able to destroy the mind and prarabda karma but dies before reaching the highest jeevanmuktha stage, still suffering pain, gets what is called videha mukti, liberation when the body falls. He too does not get any more births, because his anarabda karma responsible for future births has already been destroyed

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