[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]
Re: Angkor Wat: Temple relief Heaven & Hell
Giri( gmadras@pinto.engr.ucdavis.edu ) wrote:
>>Pradip Gangopadhyay <pradip@lism.usc.edu> writes:
>>affected. In the divine abode there is only good and no bad. Sri Ramakrishna
>>defines a liberated soul as someone whose mouth and thought are alike. That
>>is, a liberated person will not only be good in conduct, but he will also be
>>incapable of even thinking about bad things. So the law of Karma will not
>>apply to him.
>> Who defines "good in conduct or bad in conduct ?" According to
>>my understanding, the law of karma will operate as long as "I am the
>>doer" thinking exists. For a unrealized person, the actions of the
>>self-realized may seem good or bad, depending on his ego but this does
>>not concern the GYani. The actions of a GYAni are beyond all duality,
>>including good or bad.
>> To give another example, we say Ramakrishna and Ramana etc suffered
>>in their last years on earth. But did they really suffer or do we think
>>they suffered since we still associate them with the body and form though
>>they don't associate themselves with their body.
You are right when you say that the law of Karma operates as long as
"I am the doer" thinking exists. The vast majority of people who live in the
plane of duality (from Brahmalok to Naraka) think like that and are subjected
to the laws of Karma. The only people who are not subject to Karma while
living in these planes are called jivanmukta. They are extremely few in
numbers. While their bodies may be inhabiting the plane of duality their
"mind" has ascended to the "divine abode".
I agree with you that the actions of the Jnani are beyond all duality.
I understand that to mean that the action of the Jnani is only good. The plane
of duality contains the opposing pairs, good and bad, virtue and sin, truth
and falsehood etc. The Jnani operates in the "divine" plane which contains
only good, only virtue, only truth. I now give you a beautiful example of this
understanding of the statement that the Jnani is beyond the plane of duality:
Sri Ramakrishna was then in his death bed. He was told that Swami
Abhedananda (a brother disciple of Vivekananda) was fishing in a nearby lake.
Ramakrishna told Abhedananda not to fish anymore. Abhedananda asked Ramakrishna
what was wrong with fishing? Abhedananda quoted the Gita and said that he felt
that he was not doing anything wrong as only the body is perishable and the
Atman which pervades everything is surely deathless. Sri Ramakrishna's answer
was that when you have actually realized the oneness of Atman everywhere why
then would you kill the fish? He said that fishing is wrong because you use a
bait, invite the fish to take a bite and then treacherously kill it. A true
Jnani who has fully realized the oneness of the Atman and has gone beyond the
plane of duality will automatically not do anything wrong. He will not have to
think of the rightness or wrongness of his action. He will like a virtuoso
always play the right tune. This is the meaning of the statement that a Jnani
is beyond the plane of duality. Of course you may disagree with this
understanding.
I think the bodies of Sri Ramakrishna and Sri Ramana did suffer since
their bodies are subject to laws of nature and are perishable. Since they are
both self-realized ,however, and did not identify with their bodies, their
sickness is clearly not due to the law of Karma. However, why they died that
way I do not know.
PG
