[Advaita-l] Advaita practice (fwd)

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 6 Aug 2007, asad mustafa wrote:

> I am surprised that no one has mentioned Ramana's direct method of 
> enquiry as his practice. Ramana repeatedly asks for calling the bluff of 
> ego through constant enquiry instead of relying on rituals.

He lived alone on top of a mountain.  Most of our list members do not :-)

> Isn't the 
> whole point of advaita shedding the illusion of duality created by ego?

Yes indeed but merely giving up rituals (or more broadly social actions 
and obligations, these are also covered by the term karma) is not necessarily 
a sign of shedding the illusion of duality.  The Gita gives an example. 
It is actually Arjuna who brings up the topic of renunciation and if 
Krishna Bhagavan had accepted it the whole thing could have been finished 
off in one chapter instead of 18.  But actually his vairagya was based on 
cowardice and self-interest --the very height of egoism and hence no 
vairagya at all -- instead of being fixed on Brahman.  Therefore he had to 
be set straight before he could truly renounce action.

I hope to answer Lakshminarayans' question in more detail soon and I will 
touch upon the subject of enquiry as it is very important.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>