Click to download at PDF of the Notes & Quotes from this talk.
October 13, 2019
October is a month for study of Jnana Yoga (Advaita Vedanta). As a jnana yogi, you practice discrimination, reason, detachment, and satyagraha (insistence on Truth).
The goal is freedom from limitation (mukti). Our teachers say that all miseries in life are caused by seeing inaccurately. An earnest and persistent jnani may break through this misapprehension (maya) and see only the Divine Presence everywhere, in everything and everyone.
“According to Advaita metaphysics, Brahman—the ultimate, transcendent and immanent God of the latter Vedas—appears as the world because of its creative energy (māyā). The world has no separate existence apart from Brahman. The experiencing self (jīva) and the transcendental self of the Universe (ātman) are in reality identical (both are Brahman), though the individual self seems different as space within a container seems different from space as such. These cardinal doctrines are represented in the anonymous verse “Brahma Satyam Jagad Mithya; Jivo Brahmaiva Na Aparah” (Brahman is alone True, and this world of plurality is an error; the individual self is not different from Brahman). Plurality is experienced because of errors in judgments (Mithya) and ignorance (Avidya). Knowledge of Brahman removes these errors and causes liberation from the cycle of transmigration and worldly bondage.”
— from VedantaZenOneness:
YouTube URL: https://goo.gl/GtDhnu
In this talk we discuss the life led by someone who is likely to succeed on the Jnana (advaita) path toward liberation.
What is the character and temperament of a jnani, and how must he or she live, to awaken from maya’s spell and overcome the illusion of plurality?
Br. Shankara draws from the teachings of Adi Shankaracharya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Ramana Maharshi.