Questions

[Sankaran Jayanarayanan]

Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM> wrote:

Hi,

I was busy and unable to check my email at this account. Hence the delay
in my reply.

>Parisi & Watson wrote:
>
>> My reservations about Advaita begin here, for the simple reason that
all
>> of the above remains equally true even if we assume for the sake of
>> argument that the Western view is correct, and consciousness is a
>> biological function of the physical organism. Descartes pointed out
>> three hundred years ago that only 'I am' or 'I exist' is certain, and
>
>No!!! Descartes said "I think, therefore I am". In imprecise terms
>advaita says "I am, therefore there is thought, this thought has
>empirical reality only, but is actually an illusion". These two are
>_far_ from being equivalent.
>

When Descartes said,"I think, therefore I am," he didnot mean that his
thoughts caused the self. He logically concluded that the Self exists
since the statement "I doubt" itself cannot be doubted. For if it is
doubted, the statement still remains.

>_Please_ read _classical_ advaita texts to get a proper idea of
advaita.
>There are lots of teachers out there who are supposed to be
"advaitins".
>This is only in a very loose sense. In any case, _this_ list is _only_
>for discussing advaita as taught by shrI sha.nkara and his disciples. I
>suggest in the order 1) Atma bodha of shrI sha.nkara, 2) dR^ik
dR^ishhya
>viveka of shrI vidyAraNya and then more intense texts like 3)
>vivekachUDAmaNi of shrI sha.nkara. There is an excellent two volume
>commentary on the daxiNAmUrti stotra by shrI Subbaramaiya, a disciple
of
>HH abhinava vidyAtIrtha, the previous head of the Sringeri Mutt. This
>can be consulted after getting a background from the other 3 texts.
>

The best book on advaita is undoubtedly Shankara's commentary on the
Brahma Sutras. It can be said without any hesitation whatsoever that
this is THE book for learning about advaita. It is virtually impossible
to find a book of greater clarity in exposition. Last but certainly not
the least, the importance of this work has been stressed by one of the
greatest pontiffs of Sringeri: Vidyaranya himself, who declares that
this is the greatest book ever written!

>Please consult for starters the FAQ by Vidyasankar at:
>
>http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/advaita/ad_faq.html
>
>Please also see the advaita homepage at
>
>http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~vidya/advaita/
>
>Ramakrishnan.
>

-Kartik

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

>From  Sat May  9 19:15:05 1998
Message-Id: <SAT.9.MAY.1998.191505.0400.>
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 19:15:05 -0400
Reply-To: ramakris at erols.com
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
Subject: Re: Questions
Comments: To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Sankaran Jayanarayanan wrote:
>
> Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I was busy and unable to check my email at this account. Hence the delay
> in my reply.
>
> >Parisi & Watson wrote:
> >
> >> My reservations about Advaita begin here, for the simple reason that
> all
> >> of the above remains equally true even if we assume for the sake of
> >> argument that the Western view is correct, and consciousness is a
> >> biological function of the physical organism. Descartes pointed out
> >> three hundred years ago that only 'I am' or 'I exist' is certain, and
> >
> >No!!! Descartes said "I think, therefore I am". In imprecise terms
> >advaita says "I am, therefore there is thought, this thought has
> >empirical reality only, but is actually an illusion". These two are
> >_far_ from being equivalent.
> >
>
> When Descartes said,"I think, therefore I am," he didnot mean that his
> thoughts caused the self. He logically concluded that the Self exists
> since the statement "I doubt" itself cannot be doubted. For if it is
> doubted, the statement still remains.

I never said that Descartes said thoughts caused the self. And you are
reading advaita into Descartes. Descartes' philosophy is hardly monistic
by any stretch of imagination. Even interpreted as you say, it's not the
view of advaita. Atman is self-established and requires NO proof. This
is the view of advaita. The anvaya-vyatireka is to deny only external
objects. The continuous existence of a "seer" is a concept which itself
arises in avidyA and helpful in illustrating the existence of Atman.
This point is made clear by shrI sureshvara.

> The best book on advaita is undoubtedly Shankara's commentary on the
> Brahma Sutras. It can be said without any hesitation whatsoever that
> this is THE book for learning about advaita. It is virtually impossible
> to find a book of greater clarity in exposition. Last but certainly not
> the least, the importance of this work has been stressed by one of the
> greatest pontiffs of Sringeri: Vidyaranya himself, who declares that
> this is the greatest book ever written!

Different teachers suggest different texts. shruti itself says
mANDUkyamekam kevalam. The text depends on the student also, there is no
one glove fits all in this situation. I have posted HH abhinava
vidyAtIrtha mahAsvAmigaLs expression of this before.

Further the BSB is to be studied _only_ under a guru (as per HH). Others
should read prakaraNa grantha-s if studying by oneself.

Rama.