Nature of Consciousness

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Parisi & Watson <niche at AMERITECH.NET> wrote:

> >If advaita reveals the truth, then certainly any other system
opposed
> >to it cannot reveal the truth. Obviously! Thus, advaita-vedAnta
alone
> >has a monopoly over truth, if it reveals the truth.
> >By the same token, if I am mistaken and some other system reveals
the
> >truth (dual or non-dual), then that system alone has a monopoly
over
> >truth.
> >
> >There is no need to speculate whether the veda will die out. It
can't
> >because of it's eternality.
>
>
> Or it could be that, like any human enterprise, Vedanta includes
some

VedAnta is not "human enterprise" but inteprtetation of unauthored
texts. No author = no flaw in the texts. The flaw can lie only in
interpretation.

> profound truth without necessarily encompassing all of it, and
perhaps some
> areas that are fuzzy or slightly questionable. I call it a human
enterprise
> because I can't imagine any adequate justification for viewing it as

Sorry for being blunt again, but then it is best to forsake advaita
vedAnta.

> "unauthored," any more than I believe the Angel Gabriel dictated the
Koran
> to Muhammad, or that God personally wrote the Gospels. To believe
these
> things is your choice, but you might have more in common with some
religious
> teachers in the US than you realize.

Not to sound rude, but why would I care whether my views have some
commonality with some religious teachers in the US? Vedantins are not
interested in examining partial commonalties with other schools. I am
sure many religious teachers in the US also breathe air and eat food,
that doesn't bother me :-).

Rama