[Advaita-l] Advaiti Response to this report?

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> > Rajaram: For that one should understand that one is a beginner which
> > members of academia and other schools dont. I too thought I understood
> > advaitam. Thanks to the patient clarifications by the members on this list
> > online and offline (Sri Subrahamian and Sri Devanathan), I understood I
> > dont. Now, I got a structured learning path from Sri Mani Dravid
> > Sastrigal. The purpose of the list to help people learn advaitam and any
> > action should aim to achieve that. I dont see how stopping a discussion
> > will.

I don't think an explanation of a moderator's decision is really necessary, as
the reason should be clear to the majority of the list members. However, as
an opinion has been raised about it, here is the situation.
 
1. The list guidelines clearly state the parameters for comparative discussion
involving non-advaita schools of thought. I would encourage a re-reading of
the guidelines and some reflection on whether this discussion was serving
any useful purpose along those lines.
 
2. It is not clear to me that the member in question has a background in a
different school. Yes, the purpose of this list is to help people learn about
advaita and to engage in discussions, but whose responsibility is it to teach
and whose is it to learn? Yes, there are people on this list who can teach
quite well through an email discussion, but what I see is that most of them
have been increasingly silent of late. The few who try to  remain engaged
are increasingly frustrated by what is seen as a hijacking of this list's time
and space. 
 
3. A certain basic attitude of mutual respect is necessary for any discussion.
It is difficult to maintain that, for all list members, if grandiose statements
about gauDapAda and Sankara bhagavatpAda are made by one member,
while at the same time revealing a vast paucity of reasoned thought. There
are many other online fora in which to indulge in displaying one's ignorance
and to try to pass that off as philosophical sophistication. Let's spare this list
from it.
 
4. The member in question was asked by at least three other list members to
clarify some of his prima facie positions, for which the response has been an
argument going round in circles.
 
5. I decided that this discussion thread had to end today, after giving a full
day's notice. I didn't unilaterally cut the thread instantly, although I could have
well done precisely that.
 
6. I only asked for THIS thread to end. I didn't ask the member in question
not to raise any other questions in future. However, I would recommend that
before rehasing the same old wine in new bottles, the said member should
take the trouble to read a little bit from this list archives and website and
perhaps also elsewhere. http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/series/ and
http://www.advaita-vedanta.org/texts/ would be good places to start.
 
Vidyasankar