ADVAITA-L Digest

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

anand hudli <ahudli at SILVER.UCS.INDIANA.EDU> wrote:

>   Now the question is: Should a non-jiivanmukta talk like a jiivanmukta
>   or not? I will try to answer this question and I request others to
>   say what they feel.
>
>   Take your example of the novice aspiring to be a great violinist. The
>   novice talks like the virtuoso. If that makes the novice feel good,
>   strengthens his enthusiasm to learn music, and makes him work harder
>   towards his goal, there is no problem. Let him talk like a virtuoso.
>   But if talking like an expert affects him negatively such as
>   making him self-conceited, making  him
>   look down upon others like him, making  him complacent and lazy in
>   working towards his goal, then there is a problem.

Very good assessment indeed! I don't think I can add anything more to it. I
will however add a small observation here. The practice of people imitating
jnanis seems to have been the case always. I have  read about such incidents
in the "Talks with Ramana Maharshi". I also read "Mud and water", conversations
with Bassui, in which Bassui explicitly warns against people imitating masters
and how it had become very common. This was in the 12th century! So that
should tell us something.

Ramakrishnan
--
Two monks were arguing about a flag. One said, "The flag is moving." The other
said, "The wind is moving." The sixth patriarch happened to be passing by. He
told them, "Not the wind, not the flag; mind is moving." - The Gateless Gate