Neti Yoga

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Wed, 11 Sep 2002, Ashish Chandra wrote:

> On Wed, 11 Sep 2002 00:16:13 -0400, Jaldhar H. Vyas
> <jaldhar at BRAINCELLS.COM> wrote:
>
> >
> >A misconception should be cleared up here.  Just bcause Advaitins don't
>                                                          ^^^^^^^^^
>
> A bigger misconception should also be cleared - that the Dasnami (Adi
> Shankara's) is the only tradition qualified to be called Advaitins.

This is precisely what I meant when I talked about the confusion that
arises from the indiscriminate use of words.

Advaitin is a shorthand for Advaita Vedantin which is synonymous with the
philosophy poularized (though not started) by Shankaracharya.  If all
these modern Gurus are jumping on the Advaita bandwagon today it is
because of Shankaracharya not some ancient alternate tradition.

> There
> have been saints after saints who were Brahmajnanis and who always said All
> is One.

Really?  Name them.  Were they prior to Shankaracharya?  Did they refer to
themselves as Advaitins?

Assertions by themselves are only hot air.  They need to be backed up with
facts to become more substantial.

Now based on facts I can think of one person who represents an independent
Advaita Vedantic philosophy -- Mandana Mishra, the author of Brahmasiddhi.
But his philosophy is extinct.  According to tradition he was converted to
Shankaracharyas' camp.

> They may not have taught any classical philosophy as such but they
> were Advaitins all the same.

Because Ashish Chandra said so?  Without any kind of objective criteria,
it's just your word against mine, against x, against y...

> When someone talks about Advaita (or the
> teachings of these saints), he may or may not be referring to the
> philosophical positions of Adi Shankara's sampradaya and should not be
> dismissed outright as not being representative of Advaita.

Then on what grounds should he be dismissed? :-) I acknowledge that people
use language loosely.  I'm sure I've done it often myself.  But when we
are trying to philosophize, we should try and be as precise as possible.


--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>
It's a girl! See the pictures - http://www.braincells.com/shailaja/