[Advaita-l] Is the concept of maya essential to explain advaita?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

On Wed, Jan 25, 2012 at 5:16 PM, Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>wrote:

> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012, Rajaram Venkataramani wrote:
>
>  The problem for me is not that VM holds unpopular views or trusts the
>>> wrong authorities but that he has a penchant for coming to a conclusion
>>> first and then casting about for support for it.  This is not acceptable in
>>> any rational discipline Western or Eastern.
>>
>>
Start with the primary sources.  The works of Shankaracharya are readily
available for perusal.  If there is anything unclear then resort to
secondary sources whether pandit or professor.  Then come to a conclusion.
If one lacks the technical skills in Sanskrit etc. to do this then stop
speculating until the skills are acquired.

Rajaram: I agree. Personally, I think it is a fortune to learn from
scholarly practitioners who are aligned to the sampradaya. I would even say
that this list should have a rule that only those who are sampradaya vids
should post. Others like me should be content to only ask questions.
However, when you have an open list, people share different view point from
other schools, scholars and own speculations about advaita. One of the
vaishnava schools has a position like that Shri Venkatesh: "Sankarites do
not follow Sankara and teach mayavada". I found it hard to reconcile this
with their core tenet that Sankara incarnated to teach mayavada. But others
ascribed irreconcilability to inexplicability :)