[Advaita-l] Proper worship in Shankara's tradtion

[harish subramanian]

Viswanathan,

I am not in agreement with you.

The devotee starts identifying with the deity and
loses the sense of difference. 

Parabrahman manifests in the physical world as
entities real to the context of physical world(even
though this place may be illusionary).

The role of god(this concept will only cease to exist,
when there is perfect understanding of oneself) in
understanding of oneself is significant and important.
Pardon me if I might sound like a follower of Vishita
advaita. But even shankara's writings are  centered
around devotion , which will lead to knowledge.(Pardon
my ignoranc , if this is not the case).

Any way, I am sure you too would be appreciating the
role of Bhakti.

But let us say for instance, if I worship alcohol, and
if I start adoring this and start taking it regularly,
I loose control over myself and in due time, my
spiritual accomplishments would become void. Further
more this religion would make me commit acts which can
actually bring down my spiritual nature and take me to
a lower plane. 

I am pretty sure the learned people here, will respect
this idea, that the procedure of worship must be
systematic and proper, for the unregulated mind to
establish control.


 For the brahmagnani, this question does not arise. 


Regards,
Subramanian V.



--- Viswanathan <viswanathann at al-hassan.com> wrote:

> Respectful sir,
> 
> These worships of gods  whether five or ten  ... do
> they  really matter!!!
> when we go deep in advaitha path....(may be to start
> with yes...)
> but ultimately...just drop everything and start
> looking into you...
> 
> letus try to travel towards " aham Bhramasmi"...."
> Tat vam asi"
> 
> I am not against worshipping...but truth is "
> nirvihakara"...so how come
> worshipping sai / jesus/ buddha could be harmful??
> (its true that they wont
> help either)
> 
> pardon me if I am wrong....
> 
> Viswanathan
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "harish subramanian" <athibuddhi at yahoo.com>
> To: <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 11:45 AM
> Subject: [Advaita-l] Proper worship in Shankara's
> tradtion
> 
> 
> What is the position of Adi Shankaracharya on
> worship
>     of different Gods (other than the five priciple
> gods
>     of panchayatana worship)?
>     Though it is acceptable to worship any of the
>     different gods(Ultimately,all worship leads to
> the
>     lotus feet of Vishnu). I think it is not correct
> to
>     worship any Non Vedic deity as it may lead to
> delay or
>     even reversal of spiritual progress.
>     For instance , reverence of sai baba or Jesus
> may
> be
>     okay, but to worship them as God may be harmful
> or
>     even disastrous.
>     Can anyone provide me Information on texts that
> teach
>     panchayatana (according to vaidik tradition)
> form
> of
>     worship properly.
>     There are some  clarifications in this regard
>     1. There is a story of Shankara stopping the
> worship
>     of Yama. Can I know the context surrounding
> this?
>     2. What is Shankara's position on worship of
> Skanda.
> 
> 
>     He is not included on the original set of five
> gods.
>     3. What is Shankara's opinion on worship of
> Buddha. I
>     am aware of the differnces in the two sects.But
> what
>     is the position of Shankara.
> 
>     Regards,
>     Subramanian V.
> 
> 
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