Vedanta Sutra 4.4.12

dvAdazAha-vad ubhaya-vidham
bAdarAyaNo 'taH

12. For this reason, Badarayana holds that Muktas
are of both kinds (they are both bodiless and have
bodies), just as the twelve days' sacrifice (is
both an ahIna and a sattra. - 549

COMMENTARY

"For this reason," because the Mukta is one whose wish becomes spontaneously realised; therefore, the Lord Badarayana opines that the Mukta has both these natures: because the Scripture describes him in both these ways. In other words he maintains that the Mukta is both bodiless as well as has a body. It is like the twelve days' sacrifice which becomes a sattra, or an ahIna on the mere will of the yajamAna (whether he joins others with him or not), so these Mukta souls have a body or have not a body, on their mere will.

The real truth is this: that the Muktas, through the force of brahma-vidyA, have torn off all corporeal vestures, and have become satya-saGkalpas or beings whose mere will is action. Of these Muktas, there is a class who wish to have a body and they assume a body by the force of their mere will. And with regard to these is the verse of the Chandogya Upanishad [7.26.2], "he becomes one, he becomes three, he becomes five," etc. But those who have no desire to assume a body, do not get a body, and with regard to them the verse [8.12.1] of the Chandogya Upanishad becomes appropriate, and it is said that he is without a body.

Those Muktas, who through their celestial bodies (the brAhmic bodies) always wish to carry out the will of the Supreme Brahman, manifest in their acts the Chit Sakti of the Lord, and with that sakti they work simultaneously in different places. The Muktas always possess this Chit Sakti, and always follow the will of the Lord.

In the Brihadaranya Upanishad [2.4.14] it is said:-

yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati, tad itara itaraM jighrati, tad itara itaram pazyati, tad itara itaram zrNoti, tad itara itaram abhivadati, tad itara itaram manute, tad itara itaram vijAnAti. yatra itv asya sarvam AtmaivAbhUt, tat kena kaM jighret, tat kena kaM pazyet, tat kena kaM zRNuyat, tat kena kaM abhivadet, tat kena kaM manvIta, tat kena kaM vijAnIyAt?

"For when there is as it were duality, then one sees the other, one smells the other, one hears the other, one salutes the other, one perceives the other, one knows the other, but when the Self only becomes all this for the Mukta, how should he smell another, how should he see another, how should he hear another, how should he salute another, how should he perceive another, how should he know another?"

The above verse shows that when, in the state of Mukti, the Supreme Self has become the direct worker through the Mukta Jiva, when Hari pervades the Mukta Jiva, with his form of bliss, intelligence and all-pervadingness, and when He has become, as it were, all the sense-organs of the Mukta Jiva, his eyes, ears, etc., then how should such a Mukta Jiva see another, and with what he should see another, etc. Verily through the energy of Hari Himself, he sees Hari, through the sense-organs which themselves are Hari. Thus the Mukta sees Hari with the organs which are Hari and the life-energy which is Hari. Hence the Sruti says "when the Self only has become all this for the Mukta, how should he smell another, how should he see another, how should he know another," etc.

This idea is more explicitly expressed in the Sruti of the MadhyandinAyanas which is to the following effect:

"That BrahmaniSTha putting off this mortal body, and having reached Brahman, sees through Brahman, hears through Brahman, yea perceives everything through Brahman."

The smRiti also says the same:- "where dwell these spirits all of them having celestial bodies."

This SaGkalpa, or will, which blooms out in the Mukta, is to be cultivates from the very time of his earliest practice, and must be understood to be the same will, which he was cultivating during his period of sAdhana. Because the Sruti says "YathA kratuH," "as a man wills in this life, so he gets in the next." In fact, the Mukta even before he gets the state of Mukti, has been constantly willing "May I walk through the feet of Vishnu, or rather I am walking through the feet of Vishnu, I am seeing through the eyes of Vishnu," etc. Since this had been his aspiration, even before Mukti, it becomes realised in the state of Mukti.


References:

Chandogya Upanishad 7.26.2:

tad eSa zlokaH:

na pazyo mRtyum pazyati,
na rogaM nota duHkhatAm;
sarvaM ha pazyaH pazyati,
sarvam Apnoti sarvazaH.

iti.

sa ekadhA bhavati, tridhA bhavati, paJcadhA saptadhA navadhA caiva punaz caikAdazaH smRtaH, zataM ca daza caikaz ca sahasrANi ca viMzatiH.

Chandogya Upanishad 8.12.1:

maghavan, martyaM vA idam zarIram Attam mRtyunA, tad asyAmRtasyAzarIrasyAtmano'dhiSThanam, Atto vai sazarIraH, priyApriyAbhyAm, na vai sazarIrasya sataH priyApriyayor apahatir asti, azarIraM vA va santaM na priyApriye spRzataH.

Brihadaranyaka Upanishad: 2.4.14:

yatra hi dvaitam iva bhavati, tad itara itaraM jighrati, tad itara itaram pazyati, tad itara itaram zrNoti, tad itara itaram abhivadati, tad itara itaram manute, tad itara itaram vijAnAti. yatra itv asya sarvam AtmaivAbhUt, tat kena kaM jighret, tat kena kaM pazyet, tat kena kaM zRNuyat, tat kena kaM abhivadet, tat kena kaM manvIta, tat kena kaM vijAnIyAt?