Enlightenment Ever Results in Emancipation

Invocation

( Bhagavatpāda’s Dakṣiṇāmūrti-stotra 12)

[For the quelling of the affliction of great delusion, we worship the great Lord in the form of Dakṣiṇāmūrti who is worshiped by the sages such as Śuka who are free from desires and the sense of ‘mine’.]

A Doubt about Enlightened Persons Reincarnating

An enquiry in the Brahmasūtras and the Brahmasūtra-bhāṣya is aimed at substantiating the scriptural position that enlightenment consistently results in emancipation. A detractor throws into question the Vedāntic dictum that the realization of Brahman ever results in liberation, which is characterized by freedom from rebirth. Viewing any doubt here as unwarranted, Bhagavatpāda points out, ‘Your reservation is unfounded. It is inapt to have any misgiving about the genesis of an effect when its cause is there in full force. When a cook confirms that all the materials and means for cooking are at hand, would anyone wonder if rice can be readied? When a person is already eating a sumptuous meal, would one be sceptical about his hunger being appeased? In like manner, there is no ground for even an iota of doubt that the realization of the Supreme results in liberation.’

The disputant says, ‘I perused the Purāṇas, Rāmāyaṇa and Mahābhārata and it is only upon my doing so that I formed my view about the shakiness of the relationship between knowledge and liberation. If the inviolable rule is that when a person realizes Brahman, he becomes rid of any future births, how is it that we find instances in such authoritative texts of even realized souls being reborn? Hence, I contend that knowledge may or may not result in emancipation.’ He proceeds to spell out the basis of his view as follows:

The Mahābhārata conveys that a seer, teacher of the Vedas and a knower of Brahman named Apāntaratamas was reborn at the close of the Dvāpara-yuga as Vyāsa¹. Being a knower of the Supreme, he ought to have, if knowledge decidedly results in liberation, not been reborn. How then did he reincarnate as Vyāsa? Similarly, the Purāṇas and the Itihāsas report that Sage Vaśiṣṭha, a knower of Brahman, moved on to another body; the metempsychosis of enlightened ones such as Nārada and Bṛgu too finds mention in the scripture.² Hence, it is apt to take it that enlightenment sometimes results in liberation and sometimes does not.

A Knower of Brahman with a mission may be reborn

Bhagavatpāda’s comprehensive reply to the disputant that enlightenment reliably results in liberation is on the following lines:

Notwithstanding the instances you drew attention to of realized souls reincarnating, there is indeed no room for doubt as regards liberation inevitably ensuing from the realization of the Supreme. You posed, for example, a question about Apāntaratamas, a knower of Brahman being reborn as Vyāsa, to substantiate your point that knowledge does not ever result in liberation. The reason for his reincarnation, however, was only that God had entrusted him with the sacred mission of codifying and promulgating the Vedas and it was to complete this God-given assignment that Apāntaratamas voluntarily took birth as Vyāsa.

One is reborn since one has to experience the fruits of one’s good and sinful acts. Actions are grouped under three heads: ‘sañcita-karma, the host of actions done in the past that have not begun to bear fruit and will do so in future lives’; ‘āgāmi-karma, the actions done in future in this life and, in the case of an enlightened one, is the set of good and bad actions done after the rise of the knowledge of the Supreme’; and ‘prārabdha-karma, the set of actions of the past that have begun fructifying and account for the present life.’ As per the scripture, with the dawn of enlightenment, the host of actions of the past that have yet to begin fructifying are annulled; also, anything done in the present life after enlightenment is no more capable of causing rebirth. Those actions that have already begun to give rise to their results have to be exhausted by the knower by experiencing their fruits. With such actions finishing their job and the enlightened person’s physical death, there is no other action to be experienced by him and, therefore, there is no occasion for him to reincarnate.

What about those who have not known Brahman? They have the host of past actions that have yet to bear fruit and also the merit and demerit acquired in the present life to ensure that they have future births. As in the case of the enlightened one, they exhaust the actions that gave rise to their present bodies by experiencing their results, up to the time of their passing away.

Apāntaratamas, like any other enlightened one, had no actions of the past left to cause rebirth, and did not accumulate any new merit or demerit either. Again, like any other knower of the Supreme, as also an ordinary person, he had to experience the fruits of and exhaust those actions that had begun to bear fruit. A notable difference between him and other enlightened souls in general is that the actions that had begun to fructify did not end with the fall of his body but lasted till the completion of the task assigned by God. So, his case is no exception to the rule that knowledge liberates.

The others referred to by you are on a similar footing. I shall give you an example to help you appreciate this. A board put up in a school specifies the school’s timings as 8.30 to 11 in the forenoon and 3 to 5 in the afternoon. So, no student or teacher needs to stay in the school premises beyond 5 p.m. However, a particular teacher continues to take classes for his students till 6 p.m. Let us suppose that, seeing this, a person complains, ‘The timings displayed by the school authorities are false, for no teacher may actually leave the school at 5 p.m. This teacher is, after all, seen taking classes till 6 p.m. So, none should take the timings displayed seriously.’ He would perhaps be told, ‘You are mistaken. What has been specified in the board is correct. All may depart from the school at 5 p.m. As for the sole teacher who is taking classes till 6 p.m., he is doing so to fulfil a task specially assigned to him by the headmaster; the latter has instructed him to complete the portions ahead of schedule. Apart from him, all the other teachers leave at 5 p.m. Since his staying late is for a specific purpose and is just temporary, you ought not to decide that the timings displayed are misleading.’ Like the headmaster of the example, God had entrusted the responsibility of codifying and promulgating the Vedas to Apāntaratamas and it was to complete the mission assigned to him by God that he took birth as Vyāsa. Moreover, he did so of his own volition and not helplessly because of any unspent actions of the past.

Astounding Powers of Great Souls

Persons entrusted with divine missions are capable of entering even many bodies simultaneously. The choice of entering the new bodies successively or concurrently is fully theirs. For instance, the scripture mentions that a great sage took up several bodies at the same time to rapidly exhaust the actions that had begun to bear fruit and were responsible for his birth.

In the Śanti-parvan of the Mahābhārata¹, it is reported that an exponent of the Supreme named Sulabhā, desired to converse with King Janaka. She travelled to Mithilā and presented herself before him as a mendicant. Refreshed and gratified by the hospitality offered to her, she, who possessed yogic powers, quit her gross body, entered Janaka’s with her subtle body and started to converse with him. Janaka realized this and he too spoke with her internally. Perhaps as a rough parallel to this, you could think of present-day video-conferencing, where you are physically seated in one place but are virtually present and communicating with someone at a different place!

After finishing her discussion with Janaka, Sulabhā told him, ‘I shall remain inside your body tonight and return to mine tomorrow.’ She did so like a guest expressing his desire to stay in our place overnight and leave for his own the next day!

Similarly, Apāntaratamas and such others specially entrusted with missions took up new bodies out of their own volition, finished what God wanted them to do and then became disembodied once and for all and ever abided as just Brahman. As noted, even in their cases, emancipation did ensue directly from their knowledge of the Supreme.

Veda: Emancipation from Enlightenment Certain

The scripture’s word is final. An Upaniṣadic averment is:

[Among the devas, and, likewise among the seers and humans, only those who realised Brahman, became It.]

Whosoever has attained the Knowledge of Brahman, becomes liberated.

Another Upaniṣadic declaration is:

(Muṇḍaka Upaniṣad 2.2.8)

[When the Self, which is both superior and inferior, is realized, the knot of the heart gets untied, all doubts become solved and all one’s actions perish.]

When such is the unequivocal teaching of the Veda we have no right to be unsure about knowledge resulting in liberation in everyone’s case, without any exception.

Emancipation Manifests Here and Now

At any rate, the liberation that is spoken of by the Veda is not something that the knower attains by taking a new body or by going to a different world; emancipation is accomplished here and now. The Veda imparts the vital teaching:

[You are that (Reality).]

It says, ‘You are Brahman.’ This sentence does not mean, ‘You will become Brahman after your death.’ When you realize that you are indeed the Supreme, you become liberated. Since we do not have this realization now and are in the grip of ignorance, we have the false notion that we are bound. Even now we are Brahman only. What knowledge does is to dispel ignorance and not actually make one who is not Brahman now into Brahman and free one from real bondage. A standard example is worth citing at this juncture. A person was sporting a rosary on his neck. Losing sight of the fact that it was right on his person, he thought that he had misplaced it. Worried, he kept searching for it all over. When someone pointed out to him that the string of beads was very much on his neck, he heaved a sigh of relief and joyfully exclaimed, ‘Oh, I have now got back my rosary!’ Where was the rosary misplaced in the first place for it to be traced again? It was very much there with him from the start. All that happened was that he lost sight of this fact and later realized it. Similar is the case of liberation through knowledge.

As stated, and this is worth repeating, we always are of the nature of Brahman but are now ignorant of this and, hence, are trapped, as it were, in the cycle of births and deaths. The moment the realization, ‘I am Brahman’ arises in us, we become liberated, as it were. We do not have to travel to any realm to become liberated. The case of going to heaven is different; it is not something that is attained here and now. So, a man of little faith may doubt if a Vedic sacrifice that draws to a close here will surely result in the sacrificer proceeding to heaven after death. With regard to liberation, however, there is no room for any such uncertainty because the Veda asserts we are of the nature of Brahman even now and that emancipation is attained here itself, as the definite fruit of knowledge.

To sum up, enlightened ones such as Apāntaratamas reincarnate only to complete the missions entrusted to them by God. Until their missions are over, they move from one body to another with perfect liberty, without, as in the case of all knowers, accumulating new virtue or sin and with their entire store of past actions burnt up by the fire of knowledge. Only the actions that have already started to fructify that remain, as in the case of every knower of the Truth, till these finish yielding their results. The difference between other knowers and persons like Apāntaratamas is that such fructification ends not with the fall of their bodies, as in the case of the other knowers, but when their missions are over. They are then freed from a body once and for all, as is a normal knower upon death. Hence, even in these special persons, enlightenment does entail emancipation and it is wrong to opine that the realization of Brahman may or may not liberate one. Vyāsa¹ and Bhagavatpāda have, in this manner, in brief and in depth respectively, thrown light on the liberation of the enlightened ones who are specially entrusted with great tasks by God.

Time of Death Immaterial for the Enlightened

We can now take up another issue. In the Bhagavadgītā, there are some verses that apparently talk about the significance of the time of death. The literal meaning of these verses is that a knower of Brahman who dies in the uttarāyaṇa, the six months of the northern solstice, does not return to the world. However, one who dies in the dakṣiṇāyana, the six months of the southern solstice, has to come back. The verses are:

[Fire, light, day, the fortnight of the waxing moon, the six months of the northern solstice – going by this path after death, those who know Brahman attain Brahman. Smoke, night, the fortnight of the waning moon, the six months of the southern solstice – attaining through this path the lunar light, the yogin (the person who performs rites) returns (to the world after experiencing the fruit of his meritorious actions). These ‘white’ and ‘black’ courses of the world (so called because of the manifestation and non-manifestation of the knowledge of the Supreme) are indeed regarded as eternal. Through one, a person reaches the state of non-return (to transmigration); by the other, he returns again.]

Death is not in one’s control and a knower’s body may well fall off during the six months of the southern solstice. Since the Lord appears to have specified that a knower dying in the six months of the northern solstice will not reincarnate, the question arises as to whether he will be reborn were he to pass away in the other six months.

Next, because the Lord has spoken here of rebirth only with regard to death in the six months of the southern solstice, there is room for the query whether an ignorant men will attain liberation merely because he dies in the other six months. The answer to these questions is in the negative. These verses do not pertain to the person who has realized the Supreme Brahman and who is fit for immediate emancipation; the time of his death is immaterial in his case. [Bhagavatpāda has explained in His exegesis on the Bhagavadgītā that the terms ‘day (ahas)’, ‘night (rātri)’, ‘six months of the southern solstice (dakṣiṇāyana)’, ‘six months of the northern solstice (uttarāyaṇa)’ and the like seen in these verses denote the deities presiding over these periods and not the times themselves; these presiding deities convey those who meditate on Brahman as qualified by attributes and those committed only to rites to their respective destinations after death.]

Rationale behind Bhīṣma Awaiting Uttarāyaṇa

In the Brahmasūtra-bhāṣya, Bhagavatpāda has taken up this objection: If the time of death is not relevant in the case of a knower of Brahman, why is it said in the Mahābhārata that Bhīṣma tarried for the advent of six months of the northern solstice to shed his body, though he was badly injured and was on a bed of arrows? He was clearly enlightened; his advices to Yudhiṣṭhira on the way to attain liberation in the mokṣa-dharma of the Mahābhārata evidence this. As he waited for the start of the northern solstice, it is apparent that the time of death is significant even for a knower of Brahman.’ Bhagavatpāda’s reply is as follows. There is no need for a knower to shed his mortal coil in the six months of the northern solstice to attain liberation. Bhīṣma’s case is a special¹ one. When his father Śantanu desired to wed Satyavatī, her father laid down two conditions. The first one was that Bhīṣma should not succeed his father to the throne and that the child born to Satyavatī and Śantanu should alone become the ruler after Śantanu. Bhīṣma agreed to this stipulation. The second condition was that not just Bhīṣma but his heirs too should not stake any claim to the throne. Bhīṣma agreed to this too that he and vowed would not marry and, so, there would be no question of his children aspiring for kingship. Since both the conditions were unconditionally met by Bhīṣma, Satyavatī’s father agreed to give his daughter in marriage to Śantanu. Greatly pleased with Bhīṣma’s selfless conduct, Śantanu told him, ‘You have given up all your pleasures for my sake. I possess the capacity to bestow boons and I now confer one on you. Death shall not approach you unless and until you choose to die.’

Death does not come to us at our will. However, Bhīṣma obtained the power to die whenever he wanted to by virtue of his father’s boon. His waiting to die during the northern solstice was merely by way of showing respect to popular sentiment and for demonstrating the validity of his father’s boon that his death would only be at a time of his choosing. It was certainly not because his liberation was contingent upon the time of his death.

This discussion is found in Bhagavatpāda’s exposition of Vyāsa’s aphorism:

[For the said reason (that there is no need for any wait and as the fruit of knowledge is definite, one gets the result of knowledge) even when departing during the southern solstice.]

The northern and southern solstices are immaterial for an enlightened one to attain liberation.

My Paramaguru, Jagadguru Śrī Candraśekhara-bhāratī Mahāsvāmin, a great knower of Brahman, discarded His body in the month of Bhādrapada, which occurs in the six months of the southern solstice. Undoubtedly, He became liberated. Further, my own Guru, Jagadguru Śrī Abhinava Vidyātīrtha Mahāsvāmin, a pre-eminent knower of Brahman too shed His body in the month of Bhādrapada. Does this imply that He did not attain liberation? Not at all. The conclusion of the Upaniṣads is that the knower of the Supreme Brahman inevitably attains liberation.

Vyāsa, through the Brahmasūtras, and Bhagavatpāda, by His exhaustive and exquisite bhāṣya thereon, have blessed us with details of all that we need to know about enlightenment, the path to it, and its fruit, liberation. It behoves us to benefit from them, acquire the knowledge of the Supreme and make our lives fruitful.

हर नमः पार्वतीपतये हर हर महादेव

The Brahmasūtras of Sage Bādarāyaṇa (traditionally identified with Sage Vyāsa) are one of the triad of canonical texts, the Prasthāna-traya, of the esteemed Vedānta school of philosophy. It would be no exaggeration to affirm that the Brahmasūtras, together with the Brahmasūtra-bhāṣya, the superb commentary thereon by Śri Śaṅkara Bhagavatpāda, occupy a pride of place in the system of Advaita-vedānta. Profound in thought, broad in scope, authoritative, invaluable for spiritual aspirants and a delight for scholars, the sutras and the bhāṣya have, from hundreds of years ago to this day, been traditionally taught and studied by monks and analysed and debated upon much in the assemblies of distinguished scholars of Vedānta.

His Holiness Jagadguru Śrī Bhāratī-tīrtha Mahāsvāmin, the 36th Shankaracharya of the Dakshinamnaya Sringeri Sharada Peetham observed the cāturmāsya-vrata in Chennai from 3.7.2012 to 30.9.2012. Acquiescing to the prayers of His disciples, His Holiness delivered benedictory speeches on all Wednesdays, Sundays and on special occasions, except on ekādaśī days on which the Jagadguru observed silence. A nonpareil scholar of various śāstras, inclusive of Nyāya and Vedānta, His Holiness blessed His audience with 11 benedictory discourses on select portions of the Brahma-sūtras along with Bhagavatpāda’s bhāṣya thereon. The talks were delivered in Tamil and each was of 30 minutes duration.

Notwithstanding the profundity and technicality of the subject matter, His Holiness, in His inimitable style, ensured that the import of the sūtras and the bḥāṣya expounded by Him was easily intelligible to everyone who had the great good fortune of hearing Him. This book contains the aforesaid 11 speeches, edited and rendered into English. It is dedicated at the lotus feet of His Holiness, with namaskāras and apologies for the inadvertent errors in it.

ISBN 978-81-957509-7-9 9 788195 750979 >