[Advaita-l] (no subject)

[Sivakumar,Kollam]

Sadara praNAm,
would you please provide details about the title  "Happiness and the Art of
Being".
Namaste
Prof.Sivakumar

On Sat, Oct 27, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Sanjay Srivastava <sksrivastava68 at gmail.com
> wrote:

> > According to the narration, Bhagvan Ramana did not have good knowledge of
> > upanishads etc. in moolam to begin with. When he started expanding his
> > "who-am-I?' process in easier terms,
> > traditional vedantins -   read, advaitins - challenged him to provide
> > scriptural proof.  Bhagavan then conferred with some close scholars ( my
> > guess, like Sri vashishta ganapathi muni)
> > and was able to provide ample proof of congruency between what he was
> > saying and what was in the major upanishads in essence.
>
> Sri Bhagwan's realization is unique in the sense that it did not
> precede the usual course of shravaNa, manana, nididhyAsana. Rather in
> his case understanding came spontaneously. It was only later when
> scriptures were read to him that he could correlate and verbalize his
> understanding.
>
> > The question I was asked was about documentation of this or anything in a
> > similar vein in the early writings of the devotees of Bhagavan either in
> > tamizh or english.
>
> The earliest recorded conversation is considered to be "Nan Yar".
> However when it was shown to Sri Bhagwan before publication he
> underlined several passages that were not his words, but Sri
> Sivaprakash Pillai's understanding. However out of the respect for Sri
> Pillai, Bhagwan did not delete those parts but instructed to publish
> them in italics. I believe in many later versions this distinction is
> not maintained.
>
> Extensive research has been done on every single word spoken by Sri
> Bhagwan. Sri Michael James, who himself is a Tamil and Sanskrit
> scholar has given an exhaustive list of resources in the bibliography
> section of his excellent book "Happiness and the Art of Being".
>
> > The context was, I believe,
> > to answer the question, 'can advaitic jnaana be obtained independent of
> > knowledge of upanishads and brahma sutra'.
>
> Sri Bhagwan maintained that there are already enough pointers
> available about basic advaita principles in popular culture and
> literature so that anyone with an average education has already been
> exposed to the teachings. Therefore what is lacking in sAdhanA is
> reflection and contemplation on the teaching, not the exposure. Thus
> Sri Bhagwan did not give much importance to the formal study of
> Upanishads and Brahma Sutras or any other text rather emphasized on
> uninterrupted self attentiveness as means of realization.
>
> It may however be of interest to note that even as per traditional
> vedAnta, study of Upanishads and Brahma Sutras is not essential for
> self realization. One can gain knowledge from prakaraNa grantha-s as
> well. Sri Bhagwan's own writings are almost invariably in the nature
> of prakaraNa grantha-s and many of his devotees - Indians and
> Westerners alike - have produced brilliant vArtikA-s on them. Whether
> Sri Bhagwan's devotees admit it or not they are actually doing shAstra
> vichAra on Sri Bhagwan's writings with same zest and vigour that a
> traditional vedAntin might do on a traditional prakaraNa grantha.
>
> praNAm
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-- 
*sivakumarr*