Guru-disciple-enlightenment topic

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Wed, 30 Oct 1996, Ken Stuart wrote:

[...]

> So, to take the statement above to an extreme, what if Saddam Hussein
> announced he was an Advaita Vedanta Guru?
>

If Saddam Hussein were to say he was a jnaani, I would keep quiet, but if
he were to tell me he was an advaita vedanta guru, I would try to look for
his credentials. In either case, I would be well within my rights to
suspect his statement.

> Furthermore, what if he then said that the Upanishads were wrong, and
> that Shankara and Ramana Maharshi were both fools and charlatans?
>

Then he cannot be an advaita vedanta guru, can he? He may say that
Shankara and Ramana were fools, but if he says the upanishads were
"wrong", he loses the claim to any vedanta, let alone advaita. If he says
that the upanishads are in the realm of Maya, I would not object, but if
he says they are "wrong", I would just ignore him.

> Is one's response to this "one cannot say whether someone else is a
> true guru or a false guru" ?
>

Maybe not, but then, none of the false gurus you were talking about are
Saddam Husseins, are they? I must admit I still am clueless whom you are
talking about as false gurus. If there are specific people out there who
say they are Ramana's disciples, and you don't like them or the way they
teach, you are perfectly welcome to go find another teacher, are you not?
If you have philosophical objections to advaita per se, we could discuss
them here, or maybe advaita is not for you, at least not yet. Or if you
have encountered problems with a specific person, I, for one, would like
to know who this person is, and why you think he/she is a false guru.
Naming names would be quite preferable, compared to causing
misunderstandings due to generalized statements about disciples of Ramana
Maharishi.

Regards,

S. Vidyasankar