Advaita and the Gita

[Venkataramani K.]

In a message dated 5/30/02 11:31:27 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
reachhemant at SIFY.COM writes:


> While it is true that Aurobindo is not  SAnkarAdvaitic and has clearly
> distanced himself from Sankara his philosophy is also non-dualistic. Infact
> it has a marked resemblence with Kashmir Saivism in that it treats the
> world
> as Real. Even a cursory browsing of his book The Life Divine would
> vindicate
> me
>

I agree with you. The same applies for Sri Aurobindo's "Essays on the Gita".
I also noticed that Sri Aurobindo's interpretation had much similarity to the
writings of ancient Tamil Saivite seers like Tirumoolar. There is a mention
in "Tirumantiram" that Tirumoolar comes in the same disciplic succession as
Patanjali. There is a legend that considers Tirumoolar to be originally from
Kashmir. I believe that there is a lot of similarity between Tamil Saivism
and Kashmiri Saivism.

One more thing. I do find Sri Aurobindo distancing himself from Adi Sankara's
interpretations. At times he even disagrees. But, I haven't seen any
passionate denouncement as one sees in the publications from ISKCON. I am not
writing this with any negative connotations - just to share an observation.

Regards,
K.Venkataramani
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