Answers to a few questions + 2 more

[Dennis Waite]

Many thanks, Vidyasankar, for your swift, comprehensive and scholarly reply
to my queries; I really appreciated this. I'm bound to say that I cannot
comment immediately; I will have to print it out at work on Monday and then
study it at leisure. You say that "Most of these terms and their
significance will be known to everybody
here." Unfortunately this is not true. I read most of the articles on the
list but I must admit I do struggle from time to time with a lot of the
terms which are used as though everyone understands them. I have been
intending for some time to sit down with Monier-Williams and the short
dictionaries I've obtained from the net and make a concerted effort to
compile a list of the key terms. Now I have the incentive! I will make a
start on it for my next Sanskrit homework.

One thought which did occur to me whilst reading through your response is
that it is most unlikely I could ever reach your level of understanding of
the scriptures. (Where have you found the time to do this if you only began
a *serious* interest in 1994?!) Anyway, the point I wanted to make is that
my inclinations (vaasanaas) propel me towards trying to understand all about
these things too, even though I appreciate that the Self is beyond any
understanding. The School I attend attempts to address all three aspects of
gnaana, karma and bhakti yoga, together with meditation but I feel
positively anti- any bhakti aspects and my practises through action are
somewhat inconstant to say the least! What I am getting round to ask, if
it's not too presumptuous, is do you feel that acquiring all of the
knowledge which you obviously have has been completely worthwhile in the
sense of furthering your 'progress' along a spiritual path (obviously
recognising the falsehood of any concept of progress in the true sense with
reference to realisation.)?

My thanks too to Swami Vishvarupananda for the references wrt creation of
the universe through sound. I was surprised to learn that this was a tenet
of Kashmir Shaivism. The School I attend is effectively supervised by HH
Santanand Saraswati, who was (one of?) the Shankaracharya of Jyotir Math
back in the seventies and this material comes from him. Is it the case then
that his teaching would have derived from Kashmir Shaivism?

Dennis
dwaite at interalpha.co.uk