Post-Shankaran Vedantins

[Jay Lakhani]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM>
To: ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
Date: 16 December 1998 03:54
Subject: Re: Post-Shankaran Vedantins


>On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Jay Lakhani wrote:
>
j:   The most interesting aspect of Advaita is that by definition it is
    unknowable.
>
V: NO!!!  Sorry but this is a 100% wrong.  Vedanta may be somewhat
>skeptical of everyday means of knowledge but it insists that ultimate
>truth is knowable.  (This is what seperates it from nastika schools like
>Buddhism)


jay replying:-
"Brahman is 100 percent knowable!" - do you know any one who has even 1
percent of this knowledge?

j:  Hence the only logic chopping is to confirm this aspect - full
>stop.
>
V: Not true.  if Truth is knowable, then there must be a way to know it.
>This way is through the analysis of the Vedanta shastras.  This is why
>Vedanta is a type of Mimamsa or exegetical analysis.


jay replying: - Define truth if it is knowable. I am keen to be able to get
to this 'truth'
all my life.


V: The same answer also covers the points raised about the value of
language,
 truth and history.


j:   then the excellent verses from the shashtra that say:-
    "This cannot be achieved by studying too many shashtras
      or that this is the knowledge where the teacher keeps quiet and the
      student has understood"  All these are worthless poetry too?



j:  The grand thing about Advaita is that it cannot be a statement of
affairs.
>> It can only be a state - Here there is no subject - no object and no
>> relationship is possible. Just a state - a state of first hand
realisation
>> full stop.
>
V: Ah the well known problem of confusing the vyavaharik and paramarthik
>states.  We have seen this mistake repeated on the list many times.  See
>the list archives for details.
>
Jay replies:  ""Ah the daily and the divine should not be confused - they
are different""
This cannot be true.  The most mundane and the highest have no demaracation
lines.

finally jay says
>> So we come back to: - Who do we know in the contemporary times who is
>> established in this state? Without this link we have no handle on this
>> 'Advaita'
>>
j: What do you say :-}
>>
>
V: I say you have a lot of history, language and logic to work on. :-)


j:   Thank 'Advaita' that it is not a subject of history, language or logic
else it will be so dry!!   :-}

jay <vivekananda at btinternet.com>


>Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
>
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