[Advaita-l] Holenarsipur Swamiji's remarks and why even Avidya is not necessary for Advaita

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> 
> The point I am trying to make now is also same Sri Kalyan was saying.
> Maya has come into Advaita because of Bauddha influence. People are
> asking for references but I am giving them and they are neglecting
> them. What game is this? Kindly look at the references. Some more are
> here.

For the last two months or more, you have been making rather grandiose
claims about some very fundamental concepts in advaita vedAnta discourse.
You were asked for references and quotations from original Sanskrit texts to
back up your statements, by at least three different members, including me.
So far, you have provided a paragraph or two from two different academic/
popular publications in English, without questioning whether those authors
understood things right, and also a quote from one of Sri Saccidanandendra
Saraswati's writings, also in English, which you mistakenly think supports your
contentions.
 
After asking you to close the previous thread a couple of weeks ago, we have
allowed this thread to go on for a while, for two reasons. 1. We don't believe
in active moderation and/or censorship of all posts, and 2. As Sri Sadananda
mentioned, it provided an opportunity for others to share their observations
and opinions, e.g. the exchange between Sri Kalyan and Sri Subrahmanian,
over what is needed for logical purposes vs. what is needed for sAdhana.
 
A discussion thread has its own natural life. This list has lived successfully
for more than a decade, and numerous discussion threads have come and 
gone, without a moderator having to step in and actively close something.
However, when something like this goes on and on, with no signs of any
positive progress towards understanding or ending with an agreement to
disagree, we have to take action.
 
Venkatesh, we all get your point, however mistaken most of us think it is.
I don't think you get anybody else's point, however. Even when you quote
an English publication from the Holenarsipur Swamiji's writings, you read
into it your own agenda, rather than trying to understand impartially what
he has to say. So, relax a little bit and take some time to read and ruminate
on things, before you post your next "question" or observation on this list.
If you think advaitins are all clinging to mAyA, you are sadly mistaken. If
you think one can realize brahman merely by repeating "ahaM brahmAsmi"
to oneself, as if it were a mantra for japa, you are again mistaken, very
much so. If you think one can realize brahman by pointing to every object
one sees and saying this is brahman, that is brahman, then you are most
sadly mistaken, because the natural human tendency, deepened through
millions of past saMskAra-s would be to totally misunderstand the whole
point of how one can say, sarvaM khalv idaM brahma.  
 
This thread is now closed. As I said, if anybody wants to continue talking
about this topic with Sri Venkatesh Murthy, please do it privately, not on
this list. It is time to move on. In closing, a small note of caution. The words
mAyA and avidyA will continue to be used in multiple posts on this list. They
have been around for thousands of years and nobody is going to stop using
them just because Venkatesh Murthy does not like them. Therefore, if the
only response to other people's future posts from you is going to be along
the lines you have already laid out in this thread, and if you continue to flog
this dead horse for months on end, the moderators of this list will be again
forced to take action. 
 
Vidyasankar