New listmember: shrI Mikael Aktor

[Ravisankar Mayavaram]

Dear Mikael Aktor,

Welcome to the list.

With best regards,
Ravi

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 1998 23:43:42 +0200
From: Mikael Aktor <aktor at post8.tele.dk>
To: aum at unix.tamu.edu
Subject: New listmember

Dear Advaita-list members,

As a new member of this list, let me introduce myself. I am
educated a historian of religion and I now hold a position as
research assistant at Departmenet of the Study of Religion,
University of Aarhus, Denmark. I made my PhD within the area of
dharmaSAstra where I examined the complex of purity rules in the
mid-fourteenth century digest, the ParASaramAdhavIya. This text
is composed by MAdhavAcArya (the brother of SAyaNa) who later in
his life as a sannyAsin was known as VidyAraNya, the head of
Srngeri matha and the author of several important advaita vedAnta
works. From dedications in these texts and from epigraphic
material we know that the advaita order saw the political rulers,
the Vijayanagara kings, as supporters of a Vedic revival in which
the order itself was the corner stone. The kings, in turn, made
significant donations to advaita institutions and their leaders.

So, I am interested both in the spiritual history of advaita and
the institutional, political aspects of the same history. As a
matter of fact, these two aspects are rarely separable when it
comes to religious orders of the weight and authority as that of
the daSanAmi order.

>From a philosophical viewpoint I am also interested in the
tradition of advaita thinking in relation to its modern Indian
context. How far are modern advaita thinkers within the order
informed by modern agendas, and how do these thinkers see the
role of advaita in today's India?

With the best wishes

Mikael Aktor, Research Assistant, PhD,
Department of the Study of Religion,
University of Aarhus, Denmark.

aktor at post8.tele.dk

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>From  Fri Oct 23 09:57:39 1998
Message-Id: <FRI.23.OCT.1998.095739.0500.>
Date: Fri, 23 Oct 1998 09:57:39 -0500
Reply-To: msr at isc.tamu.edu
To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ravisankar Mayavaram <msr at ISC.TAMU.EDU>
Subject: Re: Mantrapushpam
Comments: To: List for advaita vedanta as taught by Shri Shankara
        <ADVAITA-L at tamu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <91F41A42E076D111A5BA00805FBE5C3298B513 at moscntx1.moscow.intl.pepsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII

On Wed, 21 Oct 1998, Subhanu Saxena wrote:

>
> When I started composing this posting, I had in mind a short sharp posting
> with a translation only. However, I found that a riot of references to other
> mantras exploded in me, hence the longer response above.  To me , it
> confirms the power of the traditional method of learning AND MEMORISING from
> gurumukha.  Knowledge in a book stays there; in the mind it can interconnect
> to become a whole, and go beyond the mind ."amanstAm tadA yAti", as Sri
> gauDapAda says.  When also recited in the traditional manner with swara,
> well, what can one say about the impact of that. I cannot describe it in
> words.

namaste shrI Saxenaji

Many years back I saw a documentary on Indian Television Station
(Doordarshan, Madras) on memorizing vedic verses. Documentary
showed techniques used to make the young brahmachAri-s memorize
the vedic verses. I did not pay careful attention to that program
at that point of time.

Can you and other knowledgeable members (when you have time)
write about that topic on the list?

At this point of time, I memorize only shloka-s. I find that
knowing the meaning helps a lot.  Even then, texts like shrI
lalitA sahasranAma (*) there certain similar patterns, which
might make one go on to loops.  I guess, this must be much more
in vedic verses.


Thank you.

With respects,
Ravi

(*) like klIMkAri kevlA guhya kaivalyapadadAyinI and
         kaulinI kevalA anarghya kaivalya pada daayinii
    at the point when the mind comes to kevalA on the second
    instance, there is potential chance to get back to guhya
which around 300 names before and start the loop again!

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"bhava shankara deshikame sharaNam"
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