What is the meaning of the term "Adhikarika Purusha"? Is it the Vedic equivalent to Abrahamic prophets? Which scriptures mention this term? How is it related to Vedanta? Are there any examples of such individuals who can be termed as "Adhikarika Purusha"? Are they different from "avataras"?
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1As I understand, adhikara is simply the authority to do an action, accrued by karma done already. Please see my answer here, not directly linked but might be of help. hinduism.stackexchange.com/questions/29399/… I don't subscribe to the view that there is any Vedic equivalent to the Abrahamic prophets.– Arjun VenkatramanOct 14, 2018 at 15:56
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What is the meaning of the term "Adhikarika Purusha"?
A person commissioned by God to do good to the world; though liberated in life, he is born again and again with full memory of his previous lives, till he finishes that duty of his, when he merges for all times in Brahman. ~ramakrishnavivekananda.info>GLOSSARY
How is it related to Vedanta? Are they different from "avataras"? Are there any examples of such individuals who can be termed as "Adhikarika Purusha"?
As per Vedanta, they might be avataras and different from avtaras too as mentioned in the book Sri Ramakrishna - The Great Master: PART FOUR: CHAPTER 3
- Conclusions drawn by Indian philosophers when they saw the signs of liberated persons manifested in incarnations from childhood. Incarnations belong, according to the Sankhya philosophy, to the class of persons “merged in Prakriti”
- The Vedanta calls these persons the Adhikarikas or persons authorized. And according to it, there are, in this class of persons, two divisions, the incarnations of God and the eternally free Isvarakotis
- The bodies and minds of Adhikarikas are made of materials different from those of ordinary people. This is why their desires and actions are also different from those of others and are so astonishing to us
As per the definitions, Adhikarikas include the incarnations of God so we can have many examples.
There are two classes of devotees: Jivakotis and Isvarakotis.Here, koti means type or like; jivakotis are ordinary men (like Jiva) and Isvarakotis are Divine men (like Isvara). Isvarakotis are Spiritual Authority who have advanced enough on path of spirituality. As per the book Sri Ramakrishna - The Great Master: PART TWO: CHAPTER 21, Sri Ramakrishna is considered as an Adhikarika Purusha (Isvarakoti).
As per Brahma Sutras (Shankara Bhashya), Vyasa, Sanatkumara, Vasishtha and Narada etc. are mentioned as ādhikārikās.
Which scriptures mention this term?
This is found in Brahma-Sutra 3.3.32:
यावदधिकारमवस्थितिराधिकारिकाणाम् ॥ ३२ ॥
yāvadadhikāramavasthitirādhikārikāṇām || 32 ||
- Of those who have a mission to fulfil (there is corporeal) existence, so long as the mission is not fulfilled.
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So they are prophets technically?– user9969Oct 14, 2018 at 18:40
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1@SuryaKantaBoseChowdhury may be but not always as it includes avtaras...and few avtaras are considered God himself and not God's prophets..bdw in few books the English term used is Spiritual Authority...– YDSOct 15, 2018 at 4:33