Concept of Mukti and Shankaracharya

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

I'm entering this discussion rather late. Prof. Arjunwadkar raises
important points. The question boils down to, "how is a jIvanmukta
supposed to behave?".

One answer, provided by Sankara himself, may be found in his
bRhadAraNyaka bhAshya 1. 4. 7, where he says, "samyag-jnAna-prAptAv apy
avaSyam bhAvinI pravRttir vAN-manaH-kAyAnAm ..... tasmAt
tyAga-vairAgyAdi sAdhanabalAvalambena Atma-vijnAna-tat-smRti-saMtatir
niyantavyA bhavati"

Perhaps, Sankara saw himself in the above light, with some residual
pravRtti in him. As for the traditional hagiographies, the mAdhavIya
recognizes that even writing commentaries involves pravRtti. There is a
story in it, regarding Hastamalaka, who rarely descended from his state
of "Being," so that Sankara did not want to ask him to write
sub-commentaries on his own works. So, he is said to have asked
Suresvara and Padmapada to do this work.

As for the question about a stock-broker being qualified for mukti, yes
and no. Theoretically, every being is qualified for mukti, and from a
higher perspective, every being is in reality already liberated.
Alternately, there is no mukti and there are no mumukshus, as gauDapAda
puts it. Practically speaking, one could look at the ranking that each
man gives to the purushArthas in his life. Clearly, the Advaitin would
rank dharma above artha and kAma, although he would rank moksha above
dharma also.

Regards,
Vidyasankar

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