[Advaita-l] upanishad mahAvAkya

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> The pa~nciikara.nam also singles out these four statements.
>
> As a side note: personally, I don't understand this obsession with
> post and pre-"sa.mkara advaitins. Should anyone not explain anything
> differently compared to "sa.mkara? Does that make them non-advaitins?

Maybe, maybe not.  Where do you draw the line?  Understanding the
historical place of a particular thinker or the historical development of
an idea is also an important tool of analysis.

> All advaitins are unanimous in declaring the ultimate unreality of the
> world and the unity of aatman. When it comes to explaining the
> empirical world and why there seems to be a perception of an empirical
> world, there are differences.
>
> A Western education seems to compound the post/pre "sa.mkara muddle.

Not just Westerners or the westernized were interested in such questions.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>