[Advaita-l] Is morality necessary for liberation?

[RAMESH RAMANAN]

Dear Friends,

Pranams to all.


I have read some of the responses to the question relating to the necessity of morality or code of conduct for salvation. In this regard, I would like to point out some statements by some eminent sages and saints like Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa. Sri Ramakrishna once scolded a man pretending to be a saint, while pursuing shady activities without any scruples. That fellow told him: "I know I am Brahman and that is enough. It is only my body which is indulging in the shady activities and that does not affect my being Brahman. Upon hearing this, Sri Ramakrishna told him:"Fie on your brand of Vedanta. I spit on it." This means, that a person professing to be a saintly character has to be saintly in thought, word and deed. Otherwise, it is mere parroting of words from scriptures and mere pretense, which can not take/lead anyone towards his natural state or Moksha. Even the pontiffs or Peetadhipathis of Sringeri (E.g. Sri Chandrashekara Bharathi Mahaswami, Sri
 Abhinava Vidya Teertha Mahaswami and Sri Bharathi Theertha Mahaswami and Kanchi (E.g: Sri Chandrashekarendra Saraswathi Mahaswami) have made statements to the same effect that one's words/speech, mind and action must be in tune with righteousness or else, they will be doomed to failure. We also have an example of a rogue pretending to be saintly and abusing Sri Ramana Maharishi during his earlier years in Arunachala. He pretended to be saintly and abused Sri Ramana Maharishi publicly and later paid for it heavily, because his pretense was not backed up by righteous living.  Without steadfast and unpretentious righteous living, how can one attain Chittha Shuddhi, which alone can lead to the steady abidance in one's natural state as Sat-Chit-Ananda, which is Jnana and Moksha?
Thanks for the clarifications in advance. My humble pranams, Ramesh 




On Tuesday, 28 January 2014, 21:18, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com> wrote:
 
Namaste,

While living in vyavahArika satya i.e. day-2-day affairs, we have to abide
to general and smriti laws. While meditating, we try to transcend duality
by practising abheda bhakti. If, by power of meditation, you are able to
separate yourself as witness and still able in interact, then such a person
will not commit any crime.

Advaita does not give license to go crazy :)

We try to find doSa darshana (fault finding) in samsAra and try to see the
temporary nature of this world and it's objects. By doing this, we practice
vairAgya with the help of viveka. We do not reject anything, we neglect it
i.e. stay neutral. No one is perfect, so there are lapse here-n-there.
Until you do not reach the 'other shore', it's 'work in progress'. So
seeing unexpected behoviour does not mean that someone is not making an
effort the advaita way. It may be a lapse on his part, but soon, his viveka
buddhi will make him realize and he will again 'be back on track'. Advaita
does not say, - do not make any effort to remove illusion or mAyA.

Also in case of Jivan mukta, as VidyAraNa SvAm in PancadaSI says, for Jivan
mukta, he realizes that this world is mithyA. But this does not mean that
the world vanishes. It is present, but Jivan mukta knows that it is not
real. Or he may realize that 'everything else is Brahman'.

Hari OM

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, Jan 28, 2014 at 9:03 PM, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <
svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:

>
> > In most religions, especially creator-centered religions, morality is
> most important. Even if faith in god is stressed, it still requires the
> believer to be moral, or else god won't be pleased. This is the logic,
> basically. Suffice it to say that for theistic religions, morality is
> perhaps as important as faith.
> >
>  But this is not necessarily a universal morality, only that which the
> opinion leaders in
> that theistic religion think of as morality. This is a problem with all
> the theistic religions.
> > But advaita is unique in that God is all there is - everything else is a
> mere appearance. So morality cannot get you out of this samsara any more
> than morality can get you out of a dream. Only knowledge between real and
> unreal can. So morality, as far as I can see, has utilitarian value - the
> same value that 'dream water' has for a dreamer. But does it have any
> salvific value at all?
> > In theory, you are correct. Non-duality puts aside the duality of moral
> and immoral as well. In practice, there is a clear acknowledgement of
> things other than jnAna,
>

<message clipped>

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