Rama Taraka Mantra

[Pannirselvam Kanagaratnam]

Hari Om!

I received the following questions and I was wondering if more
knowledgeable members of the list could help me answer them.

Thank you.

Om Shanti!

Pannir

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  Pannirselvam Kanagaratnam
  E-mail: pkanagar at rsl.ukans.edu
  Homepage: http://www.rsl.ukans.edu/~pkanagar/
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 22 Sep 1997 23:19:20 +0200
From: Francesco Fabiano <ffabia at tin.it>
To: pkanagar at rsl.ukans.edu
Subject: query

Dear Divine Life Society,

I have 2 questions regarding the Rama Taraka Mantra mentioned in Swami
Chidanandaji's page (www.rsl.ukans.edu/~pkanagar/divine/saints/chida.htm).
1) I would like to know if this is the same mantra as the one called
    Tarak Brahman.
2) I was told that the following Scriptures:
    Rama Uttara Upanishad   e    Rama Rahasya Upanishad
are about this very mantra. I would like to know if they are available in
English and, if so, from which publisher.
Thank you very much.
Yours Sincerely,
Francesco Fabiano

>From  Fri Oct  3 11:50:53 1997
Message-Id: <FRI.3.OCT.1997.115053.0400.>
Date: Fri, 3 Oct 1997 11:50:53 -0400
Reply-To: chandran at tidalwave.net
To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ram Chandran <chandran at TIDALWAVE.NET>
Organization: Personal
Subject: Re: Vedas
Comments: To: Advaita List <advaita-l at tamu.edu>
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Martin Gifford wrote at 11:35 AM 2/10/97 -0700 in reply to Vidyasankar:

> I am not interested in how you treat the Vedas. I am concerned about the use
> of the word infallible.
> Concise Oxford Dictionary.... Infallible = "Incapable of erring, unfailing."
> As an aside I noticed at the beginning of the same page of the Concise
> Oxford Dictionary (1964) the first word was ineffable = "Unautterable, too
> great for words. " That's what I'm interested in!
> (What a remarkable co-incidence! The first word on the page was ineffable
> and the last word on the page was infallible!)
> Regards,
> Martin.

Dear Martin:

Namaskar

Let go back to your previous posting in reply to mine
At   03:26 PM 2/07/97 -0500 on
Subject: The Pitfalls of Intellectual Debates on Vedanta

I stated
"Intellectual debates on issues that are beyond human intelligence will
not enrich
 spiritual life and should be avoided as for as possible."

And you replied:
 " Which issues are beyond human intelligence? How would you decide
that?"

Vedas are beyond human intelligence and let me explain you why?

        First, Vedas are beyond human comprehension.  This is logically correct
because we Hindus believe that Vedas are the revelations of God.  Until
we gain Divinity in our heart, we can't comprehend.
        Second, the sages were fully aware of human pitfalls of looking for
answers in written texts and dictionaries for answers and proofs.  Now I
am able to understand the great oral tradition that was prevalent in
Vedic time periods.  The sages had a genuine fear that written texts are
subject to corruption by the human mind.  Their fear is real.  When
Vedas got compiled and translated in many languages including English,
the interpretations became subjective. This  new environment encouraged
creative individuals to use dictionaries and translated texts to quickly
jump into inappropriate conclusions.
        Third, as Vidyasankar has pointed out: " As for the infallibility of
the Vedas, when a Hindu says this about the Vedas, he means something
very different from what a Jew or a Christian or a Muslim says about his
own scripture."  Vidya's statement can be clearly understood by the
Hindus and for others it needs some additional explanations. For a
Hindu, learning and understanding the Vedas is a lifetime project.  This
is subtle!  The Hindu concept of Life neither begins nor ends. The same
is TRUE with the Vedas!  Hindus understand Vedas by living and not by
reading texts or looking into Dictionary!
        Finally Human Intelligence is limited to time and how can we grasp
Vedas which are beyond time.  In mathematics the algebraic rules differ
for finite and infinite numbers.  In finite algebra, one plus one is
equal to two.  In infinite algebra infinity plus infinity equals to
infinity.  The rules are different when work on finite numbers and
infinite numbers. Your falsification is based on the rules of finite
algebra on infinity.  I am not surprised that it appears as false! This
is just an illusion! WISDOM is necessary to understand the TRUTH.  Vedas
represent the TRUTH!
        Let me close this discussion with following quotation from Colton
     "There is this difference between happiness and wisdom that he that
thinks himself the happiest man really is so; but he that thinks himself
the wisest is generally the greatest fool."

Note: I believe that the intellectual discussion has already reached the
threshold level and I want to stop my part of discussion with this post.