[Advaita-l] Why should I believe in Adwaita vedanta over any other Philosophy?

[Umashankar V]

Dear Friends,

A good post by Srikanta on what value Advaita brigs in as a philosophy for a
seeker, new on the path.

This world , called as Maya by advaitins, is dual in nature with pair of
opposites of good-bad, happiness-sorrow, light-darkness, high-low etc
co-existing always..

Bhagavan Shankara has clarified this in his works and given a clear view of
what Maya and the world is.

The problem is that of reference of what is absolute and what is not. In all
philososphies , except Charuvaka and buddhistic literature, there is
acknowledgement of existence of The Lord.

The Lord is The Self in Advaita. The Lord is the Supreme Lord in non-advaita
philosophies where in some maintain that a human can never be or become the
Lord and that he can only be aspiring in devotion to The Lord and do service
unto Him.

So, the seeker must essentially park himself in the area of 'believer' or an
atheist (buddhism/Charuvaka).

If the seeker believes or has faith in The Lord, which is not his call, his
soul will lead him there and not his ego, then his mind can throw advaita or
non-advaita options in front of him for a serious path of pursuit. What
helps one here is one's own Shraddha, faith and result of his previous
karmas on the path one ends up choosing. One should have the humility and
faith and devotion to The Lord and be open for His Grace. This will
eventually lead the seeker to a Guru. One must take time to choose the Guru
(given today's circumstances of having to see god-men everywhere with
excellent spiritual lingo but not essentiually spiritual stature..) , there
are genuine acharyas and Gurus available for the seeker and they need not be
in ochre robe or in the garb of an announced ascetic. Once a seeker
identifies a Guru, one must TOTALLY surrender to the Guru and then from
there onwards, the spiritual journey is fully the Guru's responsibility, not
his... Hence the importance to choosing the right Guru, a genuine one.  Here
too, the choice is made by the soul and not the ego-prone mind.

This will ensure, that one has reached the right path of progress and will
eventually reach The Lord or The Self as the Lord deems fit!...

*The point of whether advaita or non-advaitic philosophies are better has NO
PLACE whatsoever in a true, genuine seeker's mind.  A true seeker should
seek a Guru , his faith and prarabda will lead him, not his mental
decisions.*

If this question is still there, then the seeking is not spiritual but
rather superficially mental for academic and self-aggrandising pursuits
driven by the ego. There can be no two thoughts about it. Given time, the
seeking in the mind will sink into the being to mature to  become the call
of the soul and till that time the exercise will continue..

A person in duality , in maya, can never PROVE non-duality with dual devices
at disposal wihtin this world. To *ask* for it, is to actually *seek
Realization* from a Guru - both are one and the same just that the former is
superficially mental and the latter is a true , genuine yearning of the
soul.

Sri Gurubhyo Namaha!




On Tue, Oct 19, 2010 at 4:08 PM, srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in> wrote:

> Pranams!
> The above question has been posed by one of the subscibers to the list.I
> am sure the subscribers to the list must have started with some question
> or the other to come to Adwaita vedanta.The answer cannot be given
> easily.We may say after reading the Upanishads,Bhagawadgita and
> Brahmasutras and the
> Bhashyas by Shankara on them.these are theoretical studies,which says what
> Adwaita is about,but not what Adwaita actually is.All our time is passed
> in the mudane activities,so no time is available to ponder over this
> question.Just as shankara says in his Bhaja Govindam sloka:
>
> Balastavat kreedasakthah!
> tarunastavat taruni saktah!
> Vrddastavat chintasaktah!
> Parebrahmani kopi na saktah!
>
> we are immersed in Maya of different kinds,cozily believing that all these
> are real and permanent.Till something happens in our lifes to shake us
> from
> our slumber..We are disappointed in our belief we had till then.We then
> begin to question.We started with an assumption and when that assumption
> is proved wrong,we start our introspection.Is there God?We  donot start
> asking what is he like?All these questions are put forth by Adwaita
> vedanta.Instead of pointing to an outside agency,the Upanishads started
> exploring the inner nature of the human being.It was Shankara who
> substantiated the Upanishadic conclusion that God is in the being and not
> outside of himself.Infact, it was Shankara who restored the value to the
> human being to make him divine.
> Bhava shankara desika me sharanam.                  N.Srikanta.
>
>
>
>
> conclusion that God is in the being and not outside of himself.
>
>
>
>
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-- 
Regards,
Umashankar.V