Antiquity of Advaita Vedanta (was Re: An Open Letter to All)

[Rajesh Venkataraman]

--- Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
wrote:
> Rajesh Venkataraman <rajesh_venk at YAHOO.COM> wrote:
>
> > I got the following mail from Bhaskar in reply to
> the
>
> [ .... ]
>
> [ much irrelevant stuff deleted]
>
> > I hope Bhaskar would not mind.
>
> At the risk of sounding churlish, *I* do mind. This
> is not a place for
> ISKCON propoganda. Please keep it to personal mail.

I agree. The reason I forwarded the mail was not to
aid ISKCON propaganda but only because the person said
he was a beginner and wanted to learn. Also because it
was an offshoot of one of the list mails.

> A reasonable
> discussion on differences between advaita and other
> philosophies would
> be good to read. The kind of stuff found in the mail
> you forwarded  is
> fairly irrelevant.

>From a propaganda point of view, yes. Not from a
comparison point of view. If it starts degenerating
now then we should stop those mails. The whole of
Sankara's Bhashya on the Brahma Sutra is a lot of
establishing Advaita and refuting the illogical
arguments of other philosophies. So I don't see why
this mail is irrelevant. Though the level of
discussion is not high I guess everyone needs to make
a beginning sometime.

> Why on
> earth do all these various people feel compelled to
> post on these
> irrelevant topics?

************
LIST POLICIES

2) Even though the major emphasis is on
advaita-vedanta taught by shrI shankara, topics
related advaita-vedanta are welcome. Purpose of other
related articles should be to aid the understanding of
advaita-vedanta.

3) Articles promoting bhakti within the framework of
vedAnta are most welcome.  The articles should be
acceptable to the framework of advaita-vedanta.  Even
though advaita-vedanta holds that liberation is
through AtmajnAnam, bhakti is always emphasized.

4) Items 2 and 3 are vague, as the maintainer of the
List, We reserve the right on acceptability of
articles. In the case the articles are unacceptable,
it will be informed in private and resolved in
private.

************

Even if the mail were unacceptable, the course of
action was expected to have been as described in point
4 of the LIST POLICIES.

So, according to that, *your* mail is irrelevant here.


Also the policies have to made more detailed and
specific to include many more conditions, if required
in future.

>
> I have been intending to post various things on
> advaita to the list,
> which I hoped would be of some interest. I was
> waiting for all these
> completely irrelevant topics to die down. I have
> already been waiting
> for a month and looks like I have a long wait ahead
> of me.
>

I have also been one of the avid readers of your mails
and so am waiting. If you think that there will be a
stage where every member of the list will be in your
level, to start a discussion, you will be waiting for
eternity.

> I have been
> trying to maintain my patience, but this last post
> is quite the last
> straw. Why can't people follow the example of Ravi
> or Anand and post
> something relevant? Is this concept of sticking to
> advaita vedAnta on
> the advaita vedAnta list that difficult to
> understand?
>

Yes. What Advaita Vedanta is, IS difficult to
understand. That is why people spend so many Janmas in
vain. If it is intended that only the most
knowledgeable people may join the list it should be
made mandatory for everyone to take a screening test
before being made eligible.

I guess more of these kinds of mails(like the ones
between you and me) are really irrelevant to the list
and you can reply to me personally(if needed at all).

Rajesh

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