"Jagat satya!"

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

Respected Sri Vyas,

Namaskar.

When Sri Vivekananda set an Advaita Ashram at Mayavati
and banned the external & ritualistic worship of Sri
Ramakrishna, or for the matter anybody, in that
ashram, some were piqued. They wrote a letter to  Holy
Mother Sarada Devi and complained. Ma Sarada defended
Swami Vivekananda and informed the others that Sri
Ramakrishna was an advaitin and He would have very
much approved Swamiji's decision.

The rationality of advaita cannot be denied. This is
what endears it to the west. It was advaita and solely
advaita that Swami Vivekananda preached in the west.
But he called it Practical Vedanta and sought to
defend ethics and morality from the advaita point of
view. It was advaita that formed the basis of his
program of "serving Shiva in the jiva". His mahavakya
was "atmana moksharthaye jagadhitaye cha". He also put
into practice the "bahujana hitaye..bahujana sukhaye"
concept of Buddha.

The above concepts are meaningless (what I personally
feel; you are requested to correct me if I am wrong)
if the jagat is mithya.

Sri Shankaracharya was also very much concerned with
the welfare of the jiva. The Vivekachudamani is, again
what I feel, a treatise containing instructions on how
to behave in this world in the context of pure
advaita. I don't think he negates the world in the
process. He also speaks of Bhakti etc. for the benefit
of those who are not ready yet for pure advaita. These
aspects are very controversial and I will not blame
you if you come down heavily on me.

What I mean to say is that this jagat is satya to the
jiva mired in the world as much as a dream is satya to
a sleeping man. Both the Acharyas asked us to wake up
to our divinity but their approach was slightly
different. Obviously the difference was because of the
respective aims of their mission and also the
difference in the situations they had to face.

Namaskar again,

Yours sincerely

Jagannath.
--- "Jaldhar H. Vyas" <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM> wrote:


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