Questions & Answers
Pariprasna
May 2021
QUESTION: Does matter limit spirit or does Spirit limit itself? MAHARAJ: The first alternative arises only in dualistic or pluralistic systems of thought like the Samkhya and the Vaiseshika wherein spirit and matter have a cause-and-effect relation, but are independent entities. Two independent entities must necessarily limit each other, if they are in the same dimension and capable of interaction. Interaction is very necessary when we say that matter and spirit come together in forming living beings. But this will presuppose sameness of dimension and some kind of inherent unity, which means that absolute independence of matter from spirit will have to be given up. Thus the idea of matter limiting spirit falls. So the other alternative that Spirit is the only existence and that it limits itself in creative manifestation is preferable. But when we refer to this pure Spirit as the source of creative manifestation through self-limitation, we have also got to admit that the Spirit has an inherent power of self-limitation, which is only another name for self-manifestation. So the Spirit will have to be conceived as having the power of self-manifestation. Immediately the question of the relation of the power to the Spirit arises. Human thought cannot help doing so. Then a doctrine of identityin difference comes in. The human mind cannot get through its thought process to any closer unity than identity-in difference, when it has to understand the Spirit in relation to the world phenomena. Probably in pure intuition this dichotomy may be overcome but when we make any intellectual statement of it, the dichotomy comes in. QUESTION: What is the nature of a true Jivanmukta? Are all those who renounce the world Jivanmuktas in the strict sense of the term? MAHARAJ: A Jivanmukta means one who is liberated even while one is physically living. It is in contrast with Videhamukta or one who is liberated and devoid of a body. The concept of Jivanmukti is difficult to understand. All of us are embodied beings, and we feel we are the body and nothing but the body, in spite of our intellectual acceptance of the soul theory. So when it is said that a Jivanmukta has a body and bodily life just like ourselves, it is very difficult to grasp in what sense he is different from us and is called free. The Vedanta theory says that one who attains spiritual enlightenment gains a new understanding and experience that he is not the body but a spirit associated no doubt with the body, but not identical with it. This sense of detachment from body, it is said, is as much an experience as our sense of identity with the body. But this detachment does not mean that he will be like a stock or stone, insensitive to any physical happenings or without any of the physical demands like the need for food and sleep. Detachment does not mean insensitiveness, but establishment in the state of a referee or a witness of the game in place of that of a player in it. He experiences that he is a part and parcel of Satchidananda and is therefore unperturbed in the midst of experiences that are pleasurable or painful to the body. He is the master of his senses
35 The Vedanta Kesari
PA G E D O N O R : S R I M A N I S H S H U K L A , PA LG H A R
Srimat Swami Tapasyananda Ji (1904 – 1991) was one of the VicePresidents of the Ramakrishna Order. His deeply convincing answers to devotees’ questions raised in spiritual retreats and in personal letters have been published in book form as Spiritual Quest: Questions & Answers. Pariprasna is a selection from this book.
