[Advaita-l] Fwd: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 75, Issue 5

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> *Advaita does teach karma sannyasa, while encouraging the ignorant alone to
> perform veda karma for citta suddhi. The purpose of this citta suddhi is to
> develop jnana, which is characterized by renunciation. Sankara categorically
> says that knowledge and karma cannot be combined. According advaitins, Hari
> bhakti is also karma only though. On realization of the Self, there is no
> bhakti including so'ham, gopalaham, sivo'ham etc. So, I'm not sure why the
> padma purana verses demonstrate incorrect understanding of advaita. *
> _______________________________________________

Sri Subrahmanian has already demonstrated why the padma purANa verses are
clear and deliberate misunderstandings of advaita. I must, however, along
with Sri Murali, question your motivations if you think that the gauDiya
vaishNavite's favorite verses attributed to the padma purANa are a correct
representation of the advaita position. You are looking only at the kernel
of the advaita position regarding karmA and its renunciation, forgetting
the pith of the matter. 
 
"Encouraging the ignorant alone to perform veda karmA" - everybody who is
born comes with ignorance. It follows that according to advaita, everybody
has to perform vaidika karmA, till the qualification for renunciation is
firm. karmA and jnAna cannot be combined, because one cannot renounce karmA
and still insist upon its performance. Those sampradAya-s that have a place
for saMnyAsa and still insist upon karmA have a deep rooted contradiction
internally, in their core.

On the other hand, in advaita vedAnta, there is a path from karmA to its
renunciation and if you don't see that this path is a valid vaidIka path,
you are gravely mistaken about what vaidIka really means. In this, you are
not alone, for this sort of misunderstanding and misrepresentation of the
advaita position (deliberate or otherwise) is common to many. But if that
is your preferred view, perhaps advaita-L is not the company you should keep.
 
Vidyasankar