A third view -- vivekachUdAmani

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Harsha: Here is a third comment from the Advaita-L list on my question.

 

 

Harsha: Thank you for this gem. I will take the liberty to post on

other

>lists and ask a question. In Yoga, they say that when Shakti Joins

>Shiva at Sahasarara, this union results in liberation, and at death

of the

>body the Prana exits through the Sahasarara resulting in Maha

Samadhi. The

>exit through the Sahasarara is meant to be a sign of the final Mukti.

>However, on the path of Jnana, the pranas do not exit but are

absorbed into

>the Heart that is the Self. How do we reconcile these two seemingly

>divergent explanations?

 

Rama: There is no reconciliation. While advaitins do not dispute that there

are experiences like nirvikalpa samAdhi or uniting kuNDalini with

shiva in the sahasrahAra etc, they explicitly deny that this is moxa.

moxa is obtained by GYAna alone. All empirical realities are

ultimately unreal. Therefore, things such as kuNDalini, etc are also

unreal (however not like a hares' horn). Practices like these are a

_result_ of avidyA. They cannot cancel out avidyA since they are not

directly opposed to it. But, GYAna is directly opposed to avidyA and

hence leads to moxa. So these _are_ divergent explanations and there

is _no_ reconciliation.

 

However, the usefulness of these practices as a preliminary to GYAna

is not denied.

 

Rama