[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 6, Issue 3" V Sundaresan's reply to "What does Hare Krishna mean"

[N.Seshan]

I canot agree more with V Sundaresan's statement of different needs at
different levels.
However can it be explained what is meant when it is said Prabhupada's
concept of Mukti
is different from the Vedantic?
Rgds/Seshan

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 21 Oct 2003 17:43:56 -0700
From: "Vidyasankar Sundaresan" <svidyasankar at hotmail.com>
Subject: [Advaita-l] Re: What does "Hare Krishna" Mean?
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Message-ID: <Law15-F892ApGnQFWOf00020611 at hotmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed

Manikantan S <manikantan_pes at yahoo.com> wrote:

>But i always wonder , why such great epics were
>composed. once while brushing thro' certain pages of
>"Bhagvath Gita As It Is" by Bhakthi vedanta
>swami(ISCKON), i saw that he says (or atleast my
>understanding) that if a man wants to get moksha , all
>he has to do is chant "Hare Krsna, Hare Krsna Krsna
>Krsna Hare Hare" .There is no need for him to
>understand, what ramayana,gita or MahaBharatha or any
>other great book  says(this is *my* interpretation).

Obviously, one should not take it so literally. It is not as if Vyasa and
Valmiki were wasting their time and ours by composing Ramayana and
Mahabharata. Also, one should remember that different methods are taught for
different levels. If I tell a seven year old student to learn only basic
arithmetic and that calculus is unnecessary, this does not hold true
throughout the lifetime of that person. That student has to graduate to a
stage where he or she can understand calculus. Similarly, mantra chanting of
any form (not just the Hare Krishna mantra) helps one regulate the mind as
one of the preparatory stages towards moksha. Also note that what Sri
Prabhupada means by moksha is not the same as what our older Vedantic
tradition describes as moksha.

Vidyasankar

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