[Advaita-l] Missing chapter in Online version of book 'Hindu Dharma', sayings of Kanchi Paramacharya

[Sujal Upadhyay]

Thank you Sunil ji for taking time to read my website.

On a personal ground, I agree that Bhagavat Purana is the highest purana. I
would also say that our seers were tri-kAla darshi, which means that they
can see what will happen in future. In this context, it is not wrong to
name Bhagavat Purana in Padma Purana. Most people discredit works of Adi
Shankara and Tamasic Purana-s on the basis of few quotes from Padma Purana.
They also quote that verse to accuse Adi-Shankara. Often take support of
historic findings to discredit many advaita works. I hope, you must have
got the point :)

Even if Devi-Bhagavat may not be considered within 18 puranas, it is still
an important purana. Both Bhagavat-s are good. We need them both. Besides,
there is Vayu Purana, which is not found in the list of 18 major or
sometimes even minor puranas. Some say that Shiva Purana should be replaced
by Vayu Purana.

If Puranas would be constantly updated, it would mean, they would be
updated with the mortals, in which case there is going to be corruption and
interpolation, as humans may not be free from bias.

Regarding, "Brahman can be described only in a negative way". These are the
words of Swami Sacchinananda Saraswati. There is no separate one to
experience. Hence the attributes that describe Brahman also have to be
removed.

One day, I has an experience that every thought and image is floating
within me and that everything is inside me. Does this make me a Jnani?
Another day, I experienced myself as infinite. If we are aware of body,
then we are aware of it's limits i.e. physical limits of body (6 ft tall,
etc). But here, when I tried to find boundaries, I failed. the vision kept
expanding as much as I tried to see. There was no end. Does this make me a
Jnani? In both cases, the answer is no. The reason is because I was
experiencing something and so it has to be separate from me. At one time,
when I was riding bike during college days, something suddenly happened and
I saw myself riding bike. If I say, I am riding my bike, then who was the
one seeing 'me' riding bike. TO add to my surprise, as usual, I was always
looking for opportunity to overtake vehicles :). I would try to overtake,
raise htrottle and if I find another vehicle approaching, then I used to
throttle down accelerator and return back to the lane, behind the vehicle I
was overtaking. This happened for about 30 minutes. After riding, I was
still fresh. No thought occurred to me in this phase. That is why I was
fresh. Do you call me a Jnani? If yes then touch my feet ;) . I am not a
Jnani. All experiences are in duality. There is no separate one to
experience anything. Hence What I feel is that the attributes like
sat-chit-ananda are not to be experienced separately. Hence finally
everything has to be dropped.

As I understand, there are 2 ways to teach - Bottom-up and Top-down.

Rise above, Transcend, merge, etc are the words or process used for
Bottom-up approach. This approach is easy to apply and digest

Another approach is top-down. Negate what is not 'I' or what is 'Non-Self'
this is also called neti-neti (naa-iti, naa-iti), not this, not this. In
this one being established in Jnana or by detaching oneself, mind is
destroyed. This is difficult approach. In meditation, we may develop a
habit of keep looking at thoughts. This is not good. We should not expect
thoughts. Thought do not come, they leave. Let them go. We hav to chant OM
or be surrendered to God. In between thoughts come and break our 'union' -
TAdAtmya with God. Mind is dragged into duality and once again you feel the
world, the body and see thoughts. But before being pulled away or dragged
into the thoughts and images, one should be alert and remain detached.
power of thoughts with fade away and once again you will enter in to the
source of OM, the source of thoughts which is Brahman. Agian mind which was
tamed and is sleeping will arise, and will pull the consciousness i.e. 'I'
down and trap it in the body. Again, detach oneself and merge into Brahman.
This goes on and on till mind is destroyed. Here in this state, nothing
'else' remain'.

This is what I have understood. All the process of glorifying God,
describing Brahman is just to give us an imagination as to what Brahman is
like. As we are taught, I am not body, not this, etc. Then naturally the
question comes - 'Who am I'. For sake of imagination, we can say, Brahman
is like Akash, omnipresent. Now our mind has something to visualize or
imagine.Remember, it is not said, Brahman is atman, it is said, it is
akash-vata. In the same way, Atman is not 100000 Volt Bulb. By saying it is
paramjyoti, it means Jnana. The nature of Light is to give Jnana. Suppose
you have a wrist watch lying somewhere. But the room is dark. So you cannot
stop it. What do you do. You switch on the light and without delay, you see
the wrist watch. Sop darkness hised watch which was also present, while
light shows you the watch, which was already present.

Either way, by neti-neti or by merging in God, rising above 3 guNa-s, one
reaches same state. IF there is any concept or anything that stops your
progress, than it has to be destroyed (khandan). Asktavakra Gita does the
same. Even the thought - I want Moksha' has to be given up, but at a later
state, when except this thought, all other thoughts and desires have been
uprooted.

The destination is one, without a second. There is a saying - All is well
if it ends well' :)

Nice talking to you

P.S. I wish to be called 'Sujal' (this is for all members). Also ignore my
typos :)

Aum

Sujal

OM

Sujal Upadhyay

"To disconnect from the self and to become Aware of anything else is
nothing but unhappiness" - Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi

He who has faith has all
He who lacks faith, lacks all
It is the faith int he name of lord that works wonders
FAITH IS LIFE, DOUBT IS DEATH - Sri Ramakrishna


On Wed, Nov 6, 2013 at 11:12 AM, Sunil Bhattacharjya <
sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Dear Sujalji,
>
> I had a quick look at your site. Good efforts. I could not quite agree
> with a couple of your comments. May be you would like to think about it.
>
> Firstly, It is true that the Devi Bhagavata is one of the 18 Manhapuranas.
> As regards the Bhagavata Purana, Vedavyasa composed it only after composing
> the Mahabharata, and that too at the advice of Narada. The Bhagavata purana
> is said to be the highest of the Puranas and Padma purana vouches for it.
> Padma purana, though composed earlier, could pass a comment on a later
> Purana by virtue of the pancha-lakshana, which allows the Puranas to keep
> them updated.
>
> The second comment was "Brahman can be described only in a negative way".
> Brahman has been described bothways. Mundaka does not do it in the negative
> way nor does the Lord when he says he would tell about the Parampada.
>
> Regards,
> Sunil K. Bhattacharjya
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Tuesday, November 5, 2013 9:18 AM, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> Namaste Sri Vidyashankar ji,
>
> Thank you for taking time to visit my website. Thank you for correcting me.
> I will change to 'Sri Sacchidanandendra Saraswati Swami of Holenarsipur'
>
> Site is not complete and it needs guidance from knowledgeable members like
> you and others in this mailing list.
>
> Do let me know if you find anything that needs to be changed.
>
> You can call me Sujal :)
>
> Kind Regards
>
> Aum
>
> Sujal
>
> OM
>
> Sujal Upadhyay
>
> "To disconnect from the self and to become Aware of anything else is
> nothing but unhappiness" - Bhagawan Ramana Maharshi
>
> He who has faith has all
> He who lacks faith, lacks all
> It is the faith int he name of lord that works wonders
> FAITH IS LIFE, DOUBT IS DEATH - Sri Ramakrishna
>
>
> On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 9:11 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <
> svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Sri Sujal Upadhyay,
> >
> >
> >
> > Welcome to the list. I can see from your postings over the last few days
> > that you will be making good contributions to the discussions here.
> >
> >
> >
> > I would like to put in just a small comment about the Understanding
> > Advaita website. Your write-up on the top page and in further links says
> > "Sri Sacchidanandendra Saraswati Swami of Shringeri Math". I would
> > recommend that you modify this to say "Sri Sacchidanandendra Saraswati
> > Swami of Holenarsipur".
> >
> >
> >
> > While it is true that Sri Sacchidanandendra Saraswati Swami studied for a
> > while with Shringeri Math pundits, he was not one of the Sankaracharyas
> of
> > the Matha. He independently set up an institution called Adhyatma Prakasa
> > Karyalaya in Holenarsipur, which operates on its own and is not
> controlled
> > by Sringeri Matha. So, it would be best not to create confusion
> unwittingly
> > amongst those who read about advaita and its lineages on the site, but do
> > not have knowledge of the background details such as these.
> >
> >
> > With best regards,
> >
> > Vidyasankar
> >
> >
> >
> > > From: sujal.u at gmail.com
> > > Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2013
> > > To: Advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> > > Subject: [Advaita-l] Namaste
> > >
> > > Namaste,
> > >
> > > Thank you Jaldhar ji for warm welcome :)
> > >
> > >I am a Gujarati Brahmin, 32, M, (by birth and smArta by default). I am
> not
> > >a sanskrit scholar. Just an average guy trying to live a spiritual life.
> > >
> > >I manage INDIASPIRITUALITY <http://www.indiaspirituality.blogspot.com/
> >Blog
> > (
> > >http://www.indiaspirituality.blogspot.in/) and Understanding
> > >Advaita<https://sites.google.com/site/understandingadvaita/>- UA - (
> > >https://sites.google.com/site/understandingadvaita/). UA was created
> > >because I was a bit disturbed by reading much being said to advaita and
> > our
> > >acharya (Adi Shankara). Not being a scholar, I had to spend much time to
> > >find the truth. As a laymen, you will believe what you read and lack of
> > >information makes you helpless. I do not want others, like me, to spend
> > >more time find info on advaita.
> >
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> >
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