ADVAITA-L Digest - 8 Sep 2002 to 9 Sep 2002 (#2002-228)

[Jagannath Chatterjee]

Namaste Blateji,

I am happy to know you have taken our comments by your
stride. I personally don't like hurting anybody but I
will not also write something just to please somebody.

I have told you in a previous mail we don't choose or
make Gurus by their ability to perform miracles.
Rather the honest searcher after truth tends to
sidestep yogis who exhibit powers. For he knows the
spiritual dictum that yogic powers are to be discarded
if one has to attain to the Absolute.

I have nothing against Satya Sai Baba. I am happy that
he exhorts his followers to do community work which
they do exemplarily well. But I am amazed that he
resorts to miracles (like procuring chains/rings and
of course the ubiquitous vibhuti). He tried it in
Calcutta (now Kolkata) once when he procured a chain
out of nowhere. The next day a leading daily brought
out a series of snaps which clearly showed his hand
going to his hair and retrieving the chain. So such
things have only resulted in his alienation from the
authentic task of realisation both for himself and his
followers.

I am confused not because I could not understand you
but because I understood well enough to know that your
ideas about the many genuine advaitic traditions are
muddled, to say the least. In India we have six
systems of philosophy which are more than sufficient
to lead the seeker and even avataras only modify these
philosophies to suit the prevailing trend. They do not
invent anything as you have done.

I have read the Tibetan Book of the Dead, or rather
the translation, and as far as I know it deals with
Bordo or the state between death and rebirth. It
certainly does not speak about the great void. And the
experiences it talks about can be applicable only to
the Buddhists. People of other faiths will have
different experiences.

I don't know sanskrit and people call me uncivillized
for that. But even my knowledge based purely upon the
commentaries warns me to first open my own eyes and
then to lead others based on my own experiences. I
wouldn't dream about misleading others purely for the
heck of it.

Regards
Jagannath


__________________________________________________
Yahoo! - We Remember
9-11: A tribute to the more than 3,000 lives lost
http://dir.remember.yahoo.com/tribute