advaita and non-dualism (was Re: [Advaita-l] Yoga VaasishTa and Science)

[S Jayanarayanan]

--- Aditya Varun Chadha <adichad at gmail.com> wrote:

> >From a recent conversation with Amuthan the following points
> emerged:
> 
> * advaita is usually equated to "advaita vedAnta"
> * advaita vedAnta holds the vedas as infallible
> * This list should be about understanding the philosophy of Adi
> shankara.
> * Whatever shankara states explicitly should be beyond questioning
> * The purva mImansaka view that the vedas are infallible when it
> comes
> to karma kANDa has been fully supported by Sankara,
> * There is some explicit quote by Sankara saying that women do not
> have vedAdhyayanAdhikAra
> 

Sankara rarely says, "This is true because I say so."

Instead, he says, "This is true because experience/logic/scripture
says so."

It is only in two realms that mImAmsA-VedAnta accepts scriptural
authority as supreme:

1) dharma in mImAmsA
2) Atma-vidyA in VedAnta

[..]

> If all the above statements are true, then sure, I am not a student
> of
> "advaita" as such, only of non-dualism.

Hats off to your honesty.

Ramana Maharshi, who is accepted by most "traditionalists" as a
GYAnI, has sometimes given suggestions on dharma that is not always
in line with tradition. e.g. He permitted women to take up sannyAsa,
which was never part of the tradition at least at that time, perhaps
even nowadays in orthodox circles. But even RM was of the opinion
that *VedAnta* reigns supreme when it comes to removing ignorance of
the Self.

-Kartik

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