If advaita stands, all other systems(including dvaita) fall

[Gummuluru Murthy]

On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

> On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Rushikesh K. Joshi wrote:
>
> > If everything is absent, that can be the real peace.
>
> If you really believe that, forget Vedanta and just bash yourself over the
> head until you lapse into a coma.  This will have the same effect :-)
>
> --
> 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!
>

I wonder.

The object of studying vedanta is to understand what we are and secondly
to gain peace of mind.

To understand what we are, requires (sometimes) adherence to one of the
various philosophic schools of thought and interpretation. Leaving that
adherence aside and being neutral and open-minded in our inquiry,
whichever school of thought we prefer, our objective then is to have
peace and quietness of the mind.

Disturbance of the mind comes about because of our ability to think.

If only we cannot think.

Most of the List members may be aware of a program on PBS by one,
Dr. Chopra. Dr. Chopra periodically presents a show on PBS touching on
philosophy of the east. I cannot recall the title of the show (can anyone
recall ?), but it was shown four months ago by Detroit PBS during their
fund-raising weekend. Dr. Chopra says in that show: "... Human ability
is to think. Much greater ability is not to think..... ".

This leads to a question which I put sometime ago. Are mentally
underdeveloped persons farther away from knowing who they are than the
so-called "mentally well-adjusted" persons ?

On a related note, I read recently in Shri Swami Satchidananda Sarasvati's
book "The Method of Vedanta" (page 43) "The Absolute can only be revealed
through false attribution followed by retraction". Does it mean "If you
do not experience the maaya, you cannot experience the Absolute ?"


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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