[INDOLOGY] Siddha <->JIvanmukta

[Diwakar ACHARYA]

Patrick's questions: “Are the terms siddha and jīvanmukta synonymous? If someone is considered to be a siddha, does that imply that they are 'liberated in this lifetime'?”

The classical authors, starting from Śaṅkara and Maṇḍana, raise the same issue but conclude differently. 
They, however, ask your questions in this way: ‘Is a jīvanmukta already a siddha, a man who has already attained liberation, the goal of his life, for whom avidyā has entirely disappeared (vigalitanikhilāvidyaḥ siddhaḥ)?’ ‘If someone is considered to be a jīvanmukta, does this imply that he is a siddha (in the sense I interpreted in the first question), or that jīvanmukta/siddha is just a figurative expression and a person praised so is still a sādhaka but has reached a highly advanced stage in spiritual cultivation and waits only for the final realization?’

Some of the passages (not all) from Śaṅkara, Maṇḍana, and also Vācaspati, relevant to this issue can be found discussed in the paper attached (pp.424-426).

Diwakar


*********************
Dr. Diwakar Acharya
Associate Professor
Graduate School of Letters
Kyoto University
Yoshida Honmachi, Sakyo-ku
Kyoto 606-8501, Japan
Tel.: +81 75 753 2803 (office)
        +81 774 32 3366 (home)

----- Original Message -----
>> From: Brereton, Joel <jpb at austin.utexas.edu>
>> To: Indology <indology at list.indology.info>
>> Date: 2015-04-13 06:52:52
>> Subject: Re: [INDOLOGY] Siddha <->JIvanmukta
>> 
>> Robert Goodding has generously made his dissertation on the Jīvanmuktiviveka available at http://www.robgoodd.com/.
>> 
>> Joel
>> 
>> On Apr 12, 2015, at 4:38 PM, Patrick Olivelle wrote:
>> 
>> With regard to "siddha", there is interesting evidence from a tradition far different from the "religious", and that is Kauṭilya's Arthaśāstra. There the term is used frequently with regard to monetary matters and bookkeeping, but within a religious context we have both siddha used alone and in the compound siddhatāpasa. In these usages, the reference is to a religious virtuoso who is capable of, or believed capable of, doing extraordinary things. See, for example, Arthaśāstra: 1.11.16; 1.12.22; 1.21.24; 4.3.13, 25, 44; 4.4.3; 5.1.3; 5.2.39, 41.
>> 
>> For jīvanmukta, from a Advaita and quasi-yoga perspective, see Vidyāraṇya's Jīvanmuktiviveda, newly edited and translated by Robert Gooding, available, I think, through the service that publishes dissertations.
>> 
>> Best,
>> 
>> Patrick
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> On Apr 12, 2015, at 3:38 PM, Nagaraj Paturi <nagarajpaturi at gmail.com<mailto:nagarajpaturi at gmail.com>> wrote:
>> 
>> I agree with Prof. Mathew Kapstein.
>> 
>> The word Siddha has several meanings in several contexts.
>> 
>> The term JIvanmukta too has a huge shades of meaning and a wide varieties of discussion.
>> 
>> There are very small number of occasions the two terms can turn almost synonymous to each other.
>> 
>> Siddha : 1. The one who has achieved one of the ashTa siddhis. 2. One of the (usually seven) devata jatis. 3. A respectable member of the Tamil siddha tradition. 4. A guru of the Shaiva particularly Vira shaiva tradition 5. In the modern theosophical tradition, the one translated into English as a Master. The list goes on.
>> 
>> JIvanmukta : I shall continue in my next post.
>> 
>> --
>> Prof.Nagaraj Paturi
>> Hyderabad-500044
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