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

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

Dear Sri Sujal,

1)
Of course, everybody is entitled to take his or her own position. What people like me believe is that after the composition of the Bhagavata Purana some people could have tried to accommodate the Bhagavata purana among the 18 Mahapiuranas and thereby the Devi Bhagavata was pushed to the category of the Upapurana. Similarly the Vayu purana might have been pushed to the category of the upapurana by the Shivapuranaa or vice versa. Some list show the  Vayu purana among the 18 mahapuranas, while other list include the Shiva puran among the 18 Mahapuranas. There is no such thing that only the immortals have contributed to what is in the Purana. Puranas,  when updated (by the mortal rishis), should not be considered polluted. In the Pancha lakshana it has not been said that the Puranas should be updated by immortals only. Puranas continued to be updated, particularly the history portion of it, till almost the Gupta period. Of course later on some Christian
 amnd Muslim scholars even tried to include Jesus Christ and Prophet Muhammad in the puranas to give the avatara status to them.

2)
You stated 
Quote
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.
Unquote

In the past this topic did come up in the groups discussing on Advaita. All those anti-Advaita groups, primarily the Dvaita group peole have not read in the Vedas that the "the SAT came from the ASAT" and that is why they misinterpretd the term "ASAT" in the Padma purana. Nobody should say that Brahman is only SAT or only ASAT.

Regards,
Sunil KB




On Wednesday, November 6, 2013 1:50 AM, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com> wrote:
 
Namsate,

Some corrections to my typos in earlier mail

**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.


It should be

Suppose you have a wrist watch lying somewhere. But the room is dark. So
 you cannot spot it. What do you do? You switch on the light and without
 delay, you see the wrist watch. darkness hides wrist watch which was already present, while light shows you the watch, which was already present.


If I correct typos, I end up adding more info, hence I leave typos. I get lost while writing, hence many times I do not remember what I have written.


I also request you and other members to please give link or quote from my website, incase you find something that needs to be changed. I will make my job easy.



Thank you.

OM


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 2:06 PM, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com> wrote:

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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>