Re: The Taboo of Enlightenment
namaste Snip.
• There is a proverb in Tamil that echoes the words of the kena upanishad that atanu pointed out: 'kaNDavar viNDilar, viNDavar kaNdilar'--'one who has seen it won't talk about it; one who talks about has not seen it." A Reader's Digest article said this about lighning: "If you have seen it, you have missed it."
• Your question about a jIvanmukta expressing itself as such, points to the fundamental question: why should Brahman/Atman/Self create the world at all? Vedas say that It/Brahman 'willed' to 'live and multiply' instead of 'just be', so Creation happened. Since sRShTi--creation is Brahman's 'breathing out', there will be a corresponding praLaya--dissolution, its 'breathing in'.
• You have provided a good answer to your own question in your last post:
"At the absolute level it is the Self (Self veiled by ignorance) testing the Self (Brahman) in its ability to show Its true Self."
Perhaps I can slighly modify this answer as below:
At the absolute level, it is not that the Ignorant self testing the Self (that remains always enlightened). The cloud that veils the Sun cannot and does not test the light of the Sun because the cloud itself is the making--or rather lIlA--sport of the Sun; it has no independent chaitanya--consciousness to exist as a separate entity. The cloud eventually dissipates in the tApana--burning up and chaitanya--light/intelligence/consciousness of the Sun.
• The answer is perhaps in the nature of the Light: to shine out and through. A jivanmukta loses his jIvAtma as it merges in the paramAtman, and in the process it becomes a source of light and acquires the tendency to shine out and through the surrounding scum of jivAtmas: they are lightened/enlightened/delighted to the extent they can absorb and retain the light--or rather purify their own scum to let the inner light shine through. Since the jIvAtma is always conditioned by the ego--smaller self--which is essentially its own identity, they treat themselves as discrete entities in the darkness of advidyaA--ignorance, even doubt, compare and contrast the light of what they perceive as one guru with another.
• And finally, there is the 'lIlA' of the jIvanmukta as it needs to move with the surrounding jIvAtmas--or rather express its light through them. So even if an acclaimed jIvanmukta declares itself to be as such, or has disciples and devotees surrounding it, it is not a deficiency, only a sportive jesture.
रतà¥à¤¨à¤¾à¤•à¤°à¤§à¥Œà¤¤à¤ªà¤¦à¤¾à¤‚ हिमालयकिरीटिनीमॠ।
बà¥à¤°à¤¹à¥à¤®à¤°à¤¾à¤œà¤°à¥à¤·à¤¿à¤°à¤°à¤¤à¥à¤¨à¤¾à¤¢à¥à¤¯à¤¾à¤‚ वनà¥à¤¦à¥‡ à¤à¤¾à¤°à¤¤à¤®à¤¾à¤¤à¤°à¤®à¥ ॥
To her whose feet are washed by the ocean, who wears the Himalayas as her crown, and is adorned with the gems of rishis and kings, to Mother India, do I bow down in respect.
--viShNu purANam
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