Advaita phi- loso p hy ft in with the down-to-earth ideas of wor ship ful ser vice of people or of so cial up - lift? Some mod ern think ers even say that all the schools of re li gion in n dia are averse to the world. As long as their !a sic philo soph i cal tene ts do not change" how can they prov ide in - spi ra tion for worldly prog ress? Al though the two o!# ec tions !el ong to di$ ere nt cate g or ies" there is a !as ic simi l ari ty !et ween them. %oth the &ues tions gen era te in our mind dou!ts as to whether a world-neg at- ing 'edanta" or for that matt er any rel i gious school which is averse to the world" can pro - vide in spi ra tion for any pos i tive endeavour. Ap pare ntly it cann ot( yet Advaita 'edanta" wed ded to an e) treme form of ne ga tion of the world" forms the !a sis of Swami 'ive kan andas phi los o phy and programme of ac tion. *ore - over" his guru Sri +amakrishna ,aramahamsa also gave him les sons in Advaita with utm ost care. -ur ther" af ter !e com ing es ta! lished in nirvikalpa sam adhi" the pin nac le of Advaita" Sri +amakrishna him self pro claimed" .Advaita is the last word in spiri t ua li ty( with Advaitic rea l i/a tion in your pos sess ion" do as you wish. 0his means" #ust like Swami 'iveka nanda" his guru Sri +amakrishna did not see any cont ra- dic tion !e tween Advaitic e) pe ri ence and prac- ti cal ac tiv ity. n terms of prac tic al !eh av iour" such a!- sence of con trad ic tion can !e o!s erved in the lives of ear lier mas ters too. 1o !ody dou!ts the fact that Shankaracharya was a knower of %rah man. t is also unan i mously agreed that he is the princ i pal e) po nent of Advaitism in the pres ent age. 2et" even aft er att ain ing re al - i/a tion" he worked for the dis semi na tion of Advaitism !y authoring !ooks" found ing mon- as ter ies" tak ing part in re li gious po lem ics" un - dert aki ng pilg rima ges" comp osi ng dev ot ional hymns" and so on. t is nec ess ary to res olve this in con sis tency. t is poss i !le that out of such a res o lu tion will emerge a ground for the syn - the sis of du al ism and non-du al ism. 0he Acts of the ,erfected 0he Advaitic teache rs found that" even af ter at tain ment of re al i/a tion" a #nani 3knower of %rah man4 hap pens to give ins truct ions to othe rs. n fact" unl ess we agree to reg ard an in - struct or as a #nani" it de tracts from the aut hen- tic ity of the truth taught !y him. 0here fore" look ing at the lives of the #nanis and lis teni ng to the sayi ngs in the scrip tures" one has to con- clude that there is a state of e) is tence called #i - vanmukti" in which one can re main es ta!- lished in per fect knowl edge and yet from the pract ic al point of view en gage ones elf in act ivi ty. Still" from a ra tio nal view point" co e) is tence of du al ism and non- du al ism is im pos si !le. So" to e) plain this state" terms like pra ra!dha 3past ac tions that have al ready !e gun fruc ti fy ing4" a# 56 nale7a 3rem nant of ig no rance4" !6dhita- anu v8tti 3the re ap pear ance of that which has !een su!lated4 were !rought in. Again" some say that in his own eyes the #nani does not do any work" !ut in the eyes of oth ers he seems to !e work ing. 9hat ever may !e the e)p la na tion" from our lay viewp oint" #nanis do have their ac tiv i ties. %ut those ac tiv i ties are not e) actly like ours. 0hey are reg u lated !y mo tives like pro vidi ng guid ance to peo ple" !y prara!dha" or !y :ods com mand. %hagavan Sri ;rishna him self has de scri!ed this state of !eing act ive or inactive in the %hagavadgita< 1aivaki5cit karom=ti yukto manyetatattvavit( ,a7ya578>van sp87a5 #ighrann a7nan gacchan svapa57vasan. .0he self less karma yogi" hav ing re al i/ed ?@A ,ra!uddha %harata ,% - *A+BH CDD@ CE