Goodness (was Re: [Advaita-l] 'End' not 'Means')

[Amuthan]

Aditya,

i really don't have the time to type big mails right
now. all this thesis writing and project completion
stuff is taking hell a lot of time. hows urs going on?

i'll just state some discrete set of statements which
hopefully answer in a nutshell all ur questions. but i
definitely want to talk with u tete-a-tete either
during lunch or dinner sometime this week (if possible
today) to get things straight. let me know ur
convenience (off the list).

1. a 'vedAntin' is necessarily an Astika.
2. an Astika is one believes in the apauruSheyatva of
the vedAs and hence in their infallibility on issues
related to dharma and brahman.

3. individual speculation, whether or not it agrees
with what the vedAs say, is NOT a pramANa for a
vedAntin. 

4. the essence of all existence, the ultimate 'being'
is what is called the AtmA, not brahman.
5. brahman is defined as that in which the world
originates, that in which it exists and that into
which it dissolves. 
6. Atmabrahmaikya, which is fundamental to advaita,
means that the above mentioned source is the self
itself.
7. according to advaita vedAnta, this cannot be
established by means other than the vedAs.  

8. karma khANDa is different from j~nAna khANDa.
9. science has nothing to do either with karma khANDa
or j~nAna khANDa.
10. if at all there is any necessity to club science
and vedAnta, it is only j~nAna khANDa which can be
talked of as being more fundamental than science. 

11. a free philosopher and/or one who is not an Astika
ought not call himself a 'vedAntin'.

12. vedAntin-s don't speculate.

-- amudan.


		
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