Agony of the soul (?) etc

[Gummuluru Murthy]

On Mon, 6 Jan 1997, Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

>
> So there is a bheda amongst Advaiins?  Shankaracharya differs from us only
> in degree not kind.  His mission is the same as ours.

I will not be presumptuous to say that our mission is the same as that of
Bhagavan Shankaracarya. Such a thought would not even enter into the mind.

>
> The focus is not on the other person but on yourself.  If someone is
> raising questions about your supposed beliefs and you cannot answer them
> you should be alarmed and anxious to rectify the situation.  Ignorance is
> not bliss.
>

I am at peace with my thinking. I do not feel rattled if a person finds
another approach preferrable. If the other person asks me with a genuine
interest in learning, I can try to explain and myself learn something in
the process. If the motive is not learning but something else, it is not
for me to enter into a debate.

>
> This is something I've always found fascinating about the so-called
> neo-vedantins (i.e. Vivekananda, Chinmayananda etc.)  Apparently in their
> philosophy one just stumbles through life waiting for some vague,
> undefined thing to magically happen.  This is supposedly the path to peace
> but I don't see how any kind of peace could result from something so
> unstable.
>

Shri Sadananda's response in this thread is to the point.

>
> The copy of the Shiva Mahapurana I have was given to me by a lady at our
> mandir who is not at all literate in Sanskrit.  But she believed that by
> the very act of purchasing such a book and giving it as dana to a Brahmana
> she would earn punya.  How much more punya could you gain by reading and
> understanding the Shastras?  Swami Madhusudana Saraswati was a giant in
> the Advaita parampara.  Indeed without his efforts there might possibly be
> no Advaita today.  By reading his works and those of other great acharyas,
> we strengthen our our sadhana and purify it from doubt and delusion.
>

I feel my comment "Reading technical treatises on advaita or dvaita and
parroting the views does not make any difference" is twisted to give the
impression that I said reading treatises have no meaning. Far from it. It
is only through the grace of great acaryas and their writings that we are
learning something. I read advaita commentaries very regularly and have
the utmost reverence towards them.

My emphasis is that parroting the treatises does not make any difference,
unless the mind is ready to accept what is in it. This is not like reading
physics or chemistry and solving problems at the end of the chapter. The
mind has to be ready to accept what is in the treatises.

> --
> Jaldhar H. Vyas [jaldhar at braincells.com]   And the men .-_|\ who hold
> Consolidated Braincells Inc.                          /     \
> http://www.braincells.com/jaldhar/ -)~~~~~~~~  Perth->*.--._/  o-
> "Witty quote" - Dead Guy   /\/\/\ _ _ ___ _  _ Amboy       v      McQ!
>

Regards
Gummuluru Murthy
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Adau ante ca yan nAsti vartamAnepi tat tathA !
                                GaudapAda in Mandukya kArika
What did not exist at the beginning and what is not going to exist at the
 end is as good as non-existent even in the present.
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