Philosophical work
S. REVATHY
JIVANMUKTIVIVEKA OF VIDYARANYA (With the commentary Purnanandendu Kaumudi by Acyutaraya Modak): Edited by Sacchidanand Mishra; Bharatiya Book Corporation, 5824 New Chandrawal (Near Shiva Mandir), Delhi-110007. Rs. 1000.
Vidyaranya is venerated as one of the most outstanding personalities who propagated Advaita, next in importance to Sankara. He enriched Advaita philosophy by writing manifold works like commentaries, abridgements, original treatises adducing stronger arguments by quoting from the most authentic sources and also with appealing illustrations, which are well-known. The present work belongs to the last variety dealing with a doctrine of much importance in Advaita. The adoption of Moksha (liberation) as the goal of life and the institution of Sannyasa (renunciation) indicate that the final purpose of life is to transcend the relation of oneself to particular social groups and attain a true universality—a condition which is super-social and super-personal. Jivanmukti is indeed the highest and the most truly philosophical of all conceptions of deliverance in the history of philosophical thought in India. It holds that liberation is not attainment of any mysterious bliss hereafter, but the achievement of mental equipoise here and in this life, as described in glowing terms more than once in the Bhagavad Gita. This ideal is found clearly expressed in the Katha Upanishad “When all the desires are gone man becomes immortal and reaches Brahman here.” It also holds that while the individual soul strives to attain the direct knowledge of Brahman beyond the spatio-temporal confines, it is not necessary that with the attainment of this knowledge, the fall of the body of the realised soul should also be co-terminus. The time interval between the rise of the direct knowledge of Brahman and the fall of the body is the state of Jivanmukti. Other schools maintain that it is unreasonable to postulate that while the Jiva is embodied as it were it is also in a state of release. However, for Advaita while the Jiva has attained inner harmony the world appearance still persists and engages his energies.
Translation
Although many English translations of this text are available, the present work with the commentary Purnanandendu Kaumudi by Acyutaraya Modak in Sanskrit is a class of its kind. This book has been reprinted with an English introduction. The main attraction of this work is in the large number of citations from ancient texts such as the Yogavasishtha, the Sutasamhita, the Bhagavad Gita and many Upanishads, with striking explanations by Vidyaranya. The lucid commentary further enhances the value of the work.
In the first four of the five chapters into which this work is divided the author treats topics such as the nature of Jivanmukti, authority bearing testimony to the state of Jivanmukti, obliteration of latent desire and dissolution of mind, and purpose of Jivanmukti. The last chapter is an exposition of a short Upanishad known as Paramahamsopanisad dealing with Vidvatsannyasa, written in a simple and elegant style. This work is of inestimable value as there is no other work of its kind in the vast Vedanta literature. An index of quotations found in the text would have added much merit to this publication.
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