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

[K Kathirasan NCS]

Namaste Ramaji,

In principle I agree with you. In particulars I differ. I am also not a
follower of Ramesh Balasekar or any other new age teachers. 

However I do agree with you that Upadesha Sahasri is a very great text. It
is a great manual for Advaita teachers. Best regards. 

-----Original Message-----
From: advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
[mailto:advaita-l-bounces at lists.advaita-vedanta.org] On Behalf Of
Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:41 PM
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] RE: Books by Ramesh S Balsekar


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.
>
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