[Advaita-l] RE: Books by Ramesh S Balsekar

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

I see you are trying to strike a balance. But my feeling is that it's
quite difficult, if not impossible.

The reason being advaita vedAnta and the goal mokSha are
indistinguishable (at least if you belong to this school). GYaanaadeva
tu kaivalyam. So as sha.nkara remarks in his introduction to the
prashna bhAShya, GYAna is obtained only going to the traditional
teachers who can almost be called sarvaGYa (sarvaGYa-kalpita) like
pippalAda, and not by going to anyone (kenacit). My feeling is that
some of these may help in achieving a "feel good" state of mind. 
Somewhat like listening to "inspirational" speeches. Final, net result
in reality - zilch.

Just because one harps on "finding the source" does not necessarily
mean he is realized (he may be). It's also quite probable  because he
lacks the knowledge to explain things properly. Many of these
"teachers" have sprung up because of myths surrounding Ramana
Maharshi. See Chadwicks (a direct disciple) book where he dispells the
notion that Ramana never talked or kept silent all the time.
Apparently he would answer sincere questions quite well and was very
knowledgable.

Money is better spent buying some books and good translations of
authentic masters like sha.nkara (sarvaGYa-kalpita!), unless you are a
bibliophile :-). The upadeshasAhasrI is the best starting point (in
fact should be sufficient). I suggest the translation of Jagadananda
or Alston.

Rama

On Fri, 28 Jan 2005 15:41:25 +0800, K Kathirasan NCS <kkathir at ncs.com.sg> wrote:
> Namaste
> 
> Sometimes it is good to study these teachers as well, along with traditional
> Vedantic studies. It really helps us to remove our attachment to namarupa in
> the form of traditions and customs. So ideally it should be a good balance.
> 
> Shankara in the prasthana traya bhashyas is establishing the tradition of
> teaching Moksha. And to this tradition we give a name Advaita Vedanta. The
> goal is Moksha and not Advaita Vedanta.
>