[Advaita-l] What does "Hare Krishna" Mean?

[Aravind Mohanram]

Thanks for your mail. 

Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote: 

I have no wish to enter into yet another interminable debate with an ISKCON 
follower, but I would like Arvind to clarify one thing.What exactly do you mean by the term bonafide? It is thrown about for any 
and every thing - bonafide names of Vishnu, bonafide paramparA ... Are there 
any non-bonafide names of Vishnu that anybody has been using?

>>> Bonafide means that which is coming in a parampara beginning from the Supreme Lord Himself. For Vaishnavas, the four sampradayas are considered bonafide and anything said by the authorities in these sampradayas is also accepted to be bonafide. 

And do you mean to say that no paramparA is bonafide other than your own? 

>>>I don't know what made you think that I said that. As I have said above, for Vaishnavas, those who understand the absolute truth as a PERSON with innumerable transcendental qualities, anything outside the four sampradays is not bonafide (note: not bonafide for understanding the Absolute as a PERSON). This is my understanding. 


And who certifies what is bonafide? Sri Prabhupada? Note that there is no 
current paramparA older or more "bonafide" than that of Sankaracarya. And 
please do not quote to us the verse attributed to Padma Purana - we've seen 
that a million times already.

>>>No, Srila Prabhupada is just an authority in one of the four Vaishnava sampradayas. We accept this (that what is bonafide) based on sastric evidence. I think Smt. Vyas kindly pointed this out in one of her emails. Just because a parampara is older than others doesn't necessarily mean it is more bonafide than others. Neither, am I suggesting that sampradaya of Sankara is not bonafide. Atleast, personally I don't hold that opinion. And, I won't quote the Padma Purana verse, as I know it is futile to do so on this forum, and I believe it's a controversial theory. 

Again, I do not understand why your email is attributing things that I didn't really state. 

Thanks.

Aravind.


 


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