WHO GET’S LIBERATED? by Swami Sarvapriyananda
“In the 13th chapter, 2nd verse of the Bhagavad Gita, the question is asked, Who get’s liberated?”
Questioner: “Brahman cannot have ignorance. I am Brahman so I also cannot have ignorance. So whose ignorance is removed by Vedanta?”
Shankarachya: “Why are you asking this question?”
Questioner: “Because I don’t know, I’m asking.”
Shankarachya: “Therefore you’ve got ignorance, you just said you don’t know.”
Questioner: “Well I’m Brahman.”
Shankaracharya: “Yes, but do you know that??”
Questioner: “No”
Shankaracharya: “In that case you’ve got ignorance.”
“The paradox is there because the individual, the jiva, is an illusory state. It’s not a real thing with real problems. The real thing only is Brahman; it has no problems at all. Therefore this state of uncertainty, this state of inconsistency will remain.
Only when you get liberated, what will happen is you will see, ‘I was never in bondage.’ So the question, ‘Who was in bondage, who gets liberated?’ finally is rendered moot. The problem will not be solved, it just will be dissolved.”
-Swami Sarvapriyananda
MICHAEL: The Real doesn’t need liberation and the false cannot be liberated because only the Real exists.
Michael Jeffreys 