The dvaita/advaita debate revisited!

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Ken writes:

[snip]

>It's not something that one can determine for sure, until one has been both
>Sri Radha and Ramana Maharshi.  :-)
>
>Actually, probably the only person who has done so, and has written about it,
>is Sri Ramakrishna, and his writings on Personal God vs. Advaita are of
>interest [ and can be obtained at vedanta at aol.com (to whom I have no
>connection) ].

I might point out here that until "one has been both ..." is totally against
the teachings of both shaMkara and ramaNa. ramaNa has time and again
re-iterated that the jnaani alone is a bhakta and otherwise. Even the person
who has adopted the path of bhakti (used in the usual sense) has to finally
resort to enquiry. The definition of bhakti as given by shaMkara in the
vivekachuuDaamaNi and that found by ramaNa matches exactly.

It should also be pointed out that ramaNa has also written first rate bhakti
poems in Tamil, full of devotional ardor. The only equivalent poems I have seen
are that of the 4 great shaivite saints. While I have great respect for
Ramakrishna, I have found some of Ramakrishna's statements on samadhi totally
contradicting shaMkara and ramaNa. So there is no question of Ramakrishna
being the only person who did "both".

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