[Advaita-l] Some rebellious remarks on Sri SSS

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

For the last time:

1. It is amazing that 3 people - Jaldhar, Vidyasankar and Ravi - all
read my rules message and understood the *exact* intent I had, and how
so many other people are still sending messages that they didn't get
it, even after clarifications from both me and Vidyasankar. Shows who
*reads* messages and then replies, and who doesn't.

2. I will change my mind as many times as I think is necessary -20,
50, 10001, .... Changing ones mind AFTER deep thought is a virtue, and
not a sin. I find it laughable that people would stick to mistakes
rather than admit them. If that's your way of living, go ahead, just
don't expect me to fit into that viewpoint.

3. The whole point of this list is to conduct a dialog to sharpen
understanding. If you think you already know everything perfectly, why
are you even on this list?

4. A dialog consists of 2 people. In this case one is myself, largely
diagreeing at this point of time with some viewpoints of SSS. The
other could be someone largely agreeing with SSS. But both realize
that they are a) human, and b) hence have possibility for defective
understanding, and c) are eager to correct themselves it if
philosophical errors are pointed out. Only then this dialog will be
truly effective.

5. Irrespective of whether you are open-minded or not, the fact
remains that I am open-minded. If you have any sense of decency, you
will take my word for it, otherwise you can indulge in childish rants,
which I will ignore. In any case, I am certainly eager to listen if
you *follow the rules text*. Don't expect me to read some document
which does not follow this rules text. You can post some garbage
without following the rules somewhere, and declare yourself the
"winner", since I won't respond (I won't even read it). My object is
illumination and not "winning" some imaginary argument with anyone. I
don't intend wasting my time on 5th rate trash generated by anybody
and everybody, especially a whole bunch of people who seem utterly
clueless about even the basics of miimaamsaa and tarka.

6. Pay special regard to rules 3 and 4. The discussion should be
progress based on section number. The reason is simple. We Tamils have
an adage "muthal koNal, muRRum koNal", roughly "if you are wrong in
the beginning, you will be worng at the end". Each section more or
less leads to another. That's how I have structured it. SO, if there
is a major mistake in section 2, it is *highly likely* that the other
sections are irreparably defective, and there is no point wasting time
on them before the first mistake is corrected. Makes sense, doesn't
it? Helps focus on one thing at a time.

I am happy that at least one follower of the SSS interpretation gets
my intent, and sent me a mail that he liked the paper, and would think
about it. You don't have to agree with me you know, that's not why I
wrote the paper. It was written with the largely selfish reason of
sharpening my own understanding. E.g., Sri Prems comments have been
useful in stating things more precisely, and have also given me food
for thought on what to include in future revisions. I am just looking
for more stuff like that.

Rama