Nature of Consciousness

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

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

> >Whatever be the case, any system which agrees with the fundamental
> >tenets I state above _is_ advaita vedAnta, as Jaldhar said. Any
other
> >system opposing these fundamental tenets, even in "a minor manner",
> >are _not_ to be called advaita vedAnta. There cannot be any
> >"congruence", one either agrees with what I said above or does not.
> >There is no question of congruence here. This story of "different
> >paths" leading to brahmaGYAna and so called "congruences" have been
> >perpetrated by the followers of Ramakrishna on the public and have
no
> >place in advaita vedAnta.
>
>
> Well, there we have it.  With one blow you have struck down the very
thing
> about Indian religion that has attracted so many people in the West.
Instead

It's better to follow something after being informed rather than under
blissful ignorance.

> you return to the concept of authoritative and unquestionable
revelation and
> an absolute monopoly on Truth. I find this development very
disillusioning.
> If I were looking for that sort of absolutism, I could easily find
it in the
> right kind of conservative neighborhood church, synagogue, or
mosque. They
> also would insist, "But our Truth is the REAL Truth, the entire
Truth, and
> all those others are in error."

There is the question of whether the teachings in a mosque, etc agrees
with universal experience as advaita vedAnta does (in my opinion at
any rate). So I take it you'ld also support the views of the poor
ignoramuses who killed themselves hoping that they'd be taken to
salvation by a flying saucer (sorry I don't remember the name of this
group, but it is difficult to keep track of all these lunatics)? Let
me  start a new system tomorrow stating that salvation is achieved by
repeatedly banging one's head against a wall. I presume you'll admit
that as "another path to truth"? :-). My intention is not to be
sarcastic, but to point out that the line you draw is quite arbitrary.

There is another important difference between conservatives in
synagogues, etc and advaita vedAntins. The latter say that purity of
mind is a prerequisite to GYAna and that can be certainly achieved in
a variety of different ways and religions. Thus, true followers of the
veda do not go and harass people of other religions. The old text sUta
sa.nhitA makes this quite clear.

Rama