[Advaita-l] Rituals

[S.N. Sastri]

Shri Viswanathan N wrote on July 13, 2006:

Shri Sadanandaji /Sastriji and all learned

 I am not all that learned in scriptures or in the sanskrit itself to quote
anything.
 But Let me put my understanding of ' Truth' in layman' s language:

 All living /why everything in this existence are containers(c)  and the
life  inside is the Content (C). The Content all over everywhere is one and
same and the containers create the illusion of being different. Now let me
put it in this way, atleast for humans:

 C = is the 'Brahman' and  othe c =  combination of body/mind/intellect and
ego
 C is formless and  has never born or ever die...it existed exist and exisit
for ever where as the other c having form keeps changing forms which we call
birth/death.

 Vast majority of all keep their conciousness centered on c and that why all
birth/death, pleasure/pain, love/hate dualities. Once you shift your
identity /conciousness from c to C...you have reached teh home....YOU become
That. (call this shift Moksha/Nirvana whatever....)

 This is what I understood as ' Advaita'....for making this shift happen
first you have to gain the knowledge (Jnana) and keep contemplating
(Meditattion/ Dhyana)on that..and than keep performing your duty to complete
the obligations to the various elements of the society untill this body
lasts (Karma yoga).

 So, I wonder why this Rituals/ Ritualistic practices....The purpose of
Karmakhanda????

 Pl correct me and guide me , if I am wrong

 Pranams
 Viswanath



An excellent answer to this question has been given by Shri Ramakrishnan
Balasubramanian in Message 2 in Advaita l- Digest Vol. 39, Issue 5.

Rituals performed without desire for the fruit and as an offering to
God  constiute
a combination of karma yoga and Bhakti yoga. They are essential for
purification of the mind and developing one-pointedness of the mind, without
which jnAna cannot arise.

S.N.Sastri