doubt on the role of shruti vAkyAs ( was Re: [Advaita-l] advaita and vedas)

[Amuthan]

namo nArAyaNAya!

dear shrI jayanArAyaNan,

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> Although RM does not place much emphasis on manana,
> he does consider
> intellectual understanding to be an important step.
> e.g.
>

fine. agreed. 

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> RM is firm on this point:
> 
> Atma-vichAra --directly--> GYAna
> 
> But Sankara speaks of shravaNa-manana-nididhyAsana
> as the path to GYAna. 
>

RM says at one place that meditation on the mahAvAkyAs
produces purity of the mind. nevertheless, the
conditions that are required for the success of RM's
Atma vichAra are well contained in the sAdhana
chatuShTaya requirements. it is not *necessary* to
undergo nididhyAsanam to start Atma vichAram though
that may be helpful.

to summarize my understanding,

bhagavatpAda: 

A. for uttamAdhikArIs:
sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti --> shravaNa -->
akhaNDAkAra vRtti.

B. for others:
sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti --> shravaNa, manana,
nididhyAsana --> akhaNDAkAra vRtti.

ramaNa maharShi:
sAdhana chatuShTaya sampatti --> Atma vichAra --> ahaM
sphuraNa (= akhaNDAkAra vRtti).

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> That's
> the reason I take the path as I mentioned
> previously, so that there is no other
> "direct route" to GYAna except Atma-vichAra. Hence
> even nididhyAsana eventually
> culminates in Atma-vichAra.
>

nididhyAsana doesn't culminate in Atma vichAram. both
nididhyAsanam and RM's Atma vichAram have only one
goal, namely the attainment of akhaNDAkAra vRtti or
equivalently aparoksha Atma j~nAnam. 

--- S Jayanarayanan <sjayana_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> One may suppose that nididhyAsana is nothing but
> Atma-vichAra. But AFAIK,
> nididhyAsana is continuous meditation on the
> mahAvAkya. RM has never at any
> time said that Atma-vichAra requires a vAkya.
> [...]
> IMHO, Atma-vichAra is not nididhyAsana, for the
> latter requires a mahAvAkya
> while the former does not.
> 

true. RM's Atma vichAram and traditional nididhyAsana
are NOT identical. they are similar in the sense that
both have akaNDAkARavRtti as their goal. again, RM's
Atma vichAram is similar to traditional manana in the
sense that the true meaning of the 'i' is sought in
both cases. but as i said earlier, the similarity ends
there. 
 
vAsudevaH sarvaM,
aparyAptAmRtaH.


		
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