Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam (Study)

by Sadhu Gyanananddas | 2021 | 123,778 words

This page relates ‘Is Jivanamukti Possible While living?’ of the study on the Prasthanatrayi Swaminarayan Bhashyam in Light of Swaminarayan Vachanamrut (Vacanamrita). His 18th-century teachings belong to Vedanta philosophy and were compiled as the Vacanamrita, revolving around the five ontological entities of Jiva, Ishvara, Maya, Aksharabrahman, and Parabrahman. Roughly 200 years later, Bhadreshdas composed a commentary (Bhasya) correlating the principles of Vachanamrut.

6.2. Is Jīvanamukti Possible While living?

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This question was put before Prajāpati by Indra in the Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII Prajāpati explains:

maghavanmartyaṃ vā idaṃ śarīramāttaṃ mṛtyunā
tadasyāmṛtasyāśarīrasyātmano'dhiṣṭhānamātto vai
saśarīraḥ priyāpriyābhyāṃ na vai saśarīrasya sataḥ
priyāpriyayorapahatirastyaśarīraṃ vāva santaṃ na
priyāpriye spṛśataḥ ||Chāndogya-upaniṣad XII 8/12/1 ||

“Maghavan, this body is mortal and always held by death. It is the ātman, the self, which is immortal and without body. When in the body (by thinking this body is I and I am this body) the self is held by pleasure and pain. So long as he is in the body, he cannot get free from pleasure and pain. But when he is free of the body (when he knows himself different from the body), then neither pleasure nor pain touches him'.

After this systematic argumentation, the findings of the Śruti literatures reveal and consolidate the state of jīvanamukti. Based on this Śruti the Bhāṣyakāra writes:

“na punaḥ saśarīrasya jīvato muktirnirākriyate...ityadyakṣarapuruṣottamasvarūpavijñānavata ātmano jīvanmuktasthitiruktopapadyate |” (SSS, Phaladhārā, p.379)

“Thus, the state of jīvanamukti cannot be refuted whatsoever. This state is experienced by those who have realized Akṣara and Puruṣottama.”

Svāminārāyaṇa states in Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā II/28: If a person has the association of the bhakta of Parabrahman and Parabrahman is pleased upon him, then even though he is in mṛtyu loka [i.e. on earth), he is still in the abode of Parabrahman. As striking as these statements from Svāminārāyaṇa may seem, this emphasis on enlightenment ‘here can also be found in the Upaniṣads.

The last mantra of Mundaka-upaniṣad 2/1/10, for example, begins:

puruṣa evedaṃ viśvaं karma tapo brahma parāmṛtam |
etadyo veda nihitaṃ guhāyāṃ so'vidyāgranthiं vikiratīha somya || (Mundaka-upaniṣad 2/1/10)

“Parabrahman is the ātman of all; the world, sacrifice, penance, great Akṣarabrahman etc. he who knows this hidden in the cave (of the heart), he, O friend, scatters the knot of ignorance here on earth.”

The Upaniṣads invariably talk about the jīvanmukta and reveal that one can live on earth as immortal while living in this mortal body. For example: All his desires are destroyed here. (Mundaka-upaniṣad 3/2/2) Both Katha-upaniṣad 6/14 and Brhadāraṇyaka-upaniṣad 4/4/7 identically talk of the enlightened person who has overcome all desires for māyic pleasures. Then, that mortal becomes immortal and experiences Brahman here. On commenting on all four of these phrases.

Bhadreśadāsa explains:

“sa paramātmopāsaka avidyāgranthiं sudṛḍhāmapi svātmaveṣṭitamāyāmityartha | iha asminneva loke, jīvanneveti tātparyam vikirati nirasyatītyarthaḥ... iti jīvanmuktiḥ prasthapitā |” (Mundaka-upaniṣad 2/1/10, pp.266-267)

“The seeker who is offering upāsanā to Paramātmā, eradicates māyā. The word ‘here’ ‘atra’ or ‘iha’ to mean in this very body, on this same realm, while alive. In this way, jīvanamukti is propounded.^[1]

The Bhagavad-Gītā, too, has such mentions of here related to the enlightened brāhmikastate { brāhmi stithi}.

For example:

“Even here, māyic existence is overcome by those whose minds are established in equality. Brahman is equal and guile-less. Therefore, they are established in Brahman.” (Bhagavad-Gītā 5/19)

This enlightened state continues to be described further on in the Bhagavad-Gītā' s fifth chapter, where a person without any desires and in complete control of his senses and mind is revealed as a ‘mukta’ (28) and ‘brahmabhūtaḥ’, i.e. ‘brahmarūpa’ (24), having indeed attained ‘brahmanirvāṇa’ (24, 25 and 26) or the brāhmic state (20) here, before the body is shed (23). Similarly, other characteristics can be found in the Bhagavad-Gītā of the person with an equipoised mind (sthitaprajña) (Bhagavad-Gītā 2), the ‘yogin’ (Bhagavad-Gītā 6), the ‘jnāni’ (Bhagavad-Gītā 7), the beloved devotee (priya bhakta) (Bhagavad-Gītā 12) and the person who has transcended the influence of all māyic qualities (gunātita) (Bhagavad-Gītā 14) -all descriptions, according to Bhadreśadāsa, of the brāhmi stithi or brahmarūpa jīvan-mukta.

Svāminārāyaṇa similarly describes this state of living enlightenment as one characterized by complete desirelessness for worldly pleasures (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/56, Gadh. 1/60, Gadh. 2/4), equanimity amid all dualities (Vacanamrut Loyā 16, Loyā.10, Gadh. 2/1, Gadh. 2/4) and independence from the body, senses, faculties and all other māyic or karmic influences (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/62, Sār. 11, Loyā.10, Amd.2). Most importantly, it is a state of complete self-and Parabrahman-realization, wherein the jīvanmukta direct experiences Parabrahman in all his resplendent glory (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/20, Gadh. 1/23, Sār.16), both within their own self (Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 10, Sār.12, Gadh. 2/8, Gadh. 2/62) and wherever they turn (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/26, Kār.7), as if Parabrahman or his abode is not even an atom away (Vacanāmṛta Sārangpur 10). The mukta's senses and mind are now totally engrossed in Parabrahman (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/51, Kār.1). Nothing else remains noticeable (Vacanāmṛta Gadhadā I/24, Gadh. 1/26); they experience Parabrahman in everyone and in everything (Vacanāmṛta Kāriyānī 7). 377

On the basis of the above-mentioned discussion, we can provide some characteristics of a jīvanmukta as under:

1. His^[2] mind and all the ten sensory-motor organs remain totally Parabrahman-oriented.^[3]

2. He realizes his essential nature as Brahman (similar to Akṣara-brahman), and in it, he ceaselessly perceives the presence of Puruṣottama. He thus dwells in constant Parabrahman-consciousness.^[4]

3. All his vṛttis are controlled and arrested and become ātman-oriented. His vāsanā (the liṅga-deha), the cause of transmigratory cycles, get totally annihilated consequently, by the light of right knowledge, he realizes his essential nature as Brahman (Akṣara); and in it, he constantly visualizes the presence of Supreme Nārāyaṇa (Parabrahman).^[5]

4. He dwells in the ceaseless steadfast experience of being a pure ātman indwelt by Paramātman.^[6]

5. The consummation of right knowledge in his case results in jñāna-pralaya i.e. the cognitive-experience of dissolution of everything born of mūlaprakṛti. Consequently, māyā-prakṛti does not hit back upon him to create any bondage again.^[7]

6. He, then remains engrossed in the servile devotion to Parabrahman. He does not need any more birth to return to the earth. Even then, he remains dharma-abiding as a more responsible devotee. However, by the will of Parabrahman, if at all he takes birth, he is not born in sin, nor by the influence of māyā, kāla, kārma etc. Freely does he visit the earth, like eternally free Parabrahman.^[8]

7. On account of (jñāna-pralaya) cognitively realized dissolution of everything, he now sees the same beautiful-effulgent-divine transcendental form of Parabrahman eternally dwelling in the highest abode, in everything and everywhere. So, for him now, there is no point in the space devoid of the divine presence of his Parabrahman.^[9]

In this manner, the jīvanamukti is a prominent principle of the Svāminārāyaṇa Darśana. It is indeed a real state.^[10]