[Advaita-l] Re: Love molecule

[praveen.r.bhat at exgate.tek.com]

praNAm,

Perfect, Sir, I wholeheartedly agree with what you said. 

All I said is that Poonja Maharaj is not a good example of a modern master who claimed enlightenment (if at all he did; I'm sorry if I said that he did claim it, earlier). His account of meeting with Ramana after Ramana calling him is enough for me to accept his attributing his *whatever* state to Ramana (especially knowing his one follower well, first-hand, and also having talks about this latter with David Godman). But thats besides the point. Poonja was not from the tradition but its a little farfetched to say that he didn't undergo rigorous training himself (I know you didn't say it, but I'm just mentioning it humbly). 

Then again, I myself do not consider anyone outside the tradition as a good following "for myself". brahmanishTA and shrotriya, it is, without doubt whatsoever. In fact, I cross over to the other side to agree (again thats only my viewpoint) that one also has to be a sannyAsi to seek moksha.

krishNArpaNamastu,
--praveen



-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org]On Behalf Of Sanjay
Srivastava
Sent: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 7:07 PM
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Re: Love molecule


Sri Praveen Bhat wrote:

> Could you please confirm if this is from "Nothing ever happened" or elsewhere?

It is from "Odyssey"  by Madhukar Thompson.

> (Strictly speaking... rather, IMHO... Poonja Maharaj could hardly be considered a modern master. He gives credit of his enlightenment to his guru, Ramana Maharshi)

Maybe Punjaji was not a "modern" master, but I would not attach much
importance on his giving credit of his enlightenment to Ramana.

Ramana is in fact the easiest target for any neo-advaitin. Since
Ramana is not from the tradition, it gives opportunity to any wannabe
guru to hitch his bandwagon to Ramana while bypassing the rigors of
discipline needed for undergoing a traditional training. Moreover
claiming "enlightenment" outside the tradition gives an additional
advantage since there is no objective criteria such as shruti to
verify their assertions.

VedAnta holds that a teacher should be brahmanishTha and shrotriya.
While brahmanishTha could be in any path, being a shrotriya usually
requires a rigorous training. Ramana never had a traditional training
of shAstra, yet because of his puNyas from previous births and
interactions with number of jnAnis in his aruNAchal days, he developed
a flawless understanding of shAstra. It goes to Ramana's credit that
he never took anyone as his disciple in deferrence to vedAnta
tradition that does not recognize anyone outside the tradition as a
teacher.

praNAm
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