[Advaita-l] Dayanand Saraswathi interview - Very interesting stand taken by Swami

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 1:33 AM, Kripa Shankar via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> Namaste,
>
>
> If we consider the statement given by Mahasannidhanam, Gurugal * is
> certain * that RM was * not a jivanmukta *. That is a strong statement in
> my opinion. ‎There is no other way to interpret it, is there?



Dear Kripa ji,

You have twisted what Rama wrote:

//In "Jivanmukti in Transformation", Andrew Fort reports speaking to
Mahasannidhanam (Bharati Tirtha SwamigaL) in Hindi and reports that his
opinion is that Ramana was not a jivanmukta like Vidyaranya or Abhinava
Vidyatirtha, but a mahant. I think that's a trustworthy source.//

You conveniently truncated the portion:   '... like Vidyaranya or Abhinava
Vidyatirtha...'. That way you misinterpreted the Acharya's words and claim
'there is no other way to interpret it'!! .

In Advaita Jivanmukti/a has several divisions/gradations. So, when RM was
purportedly stated to be 'not like Vidyaranya or Abhinava Vidyatirtha', it
by no means that the Sringeri Acharya implied that RM was not a jnani.

Further, while you concluded to rely on a statement from a book referred to
by Rama, you chose to ignore the reference from the book 'Crest Jewel of
Yogis' written by a Yogi- Jnani who was very close to the earlier Sringeri
Pithadhipati, Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Swamigal, whose life is what is
written in great detail in that book and in another book Yoga Enlightenment
and Perfection.  This author in the first stated book has clearly said that
'Acharyal had said that RM was a Jnani'. The credentials of this author is
are way above the one you relied upon.

Thus, while there is absolutely no contradiction between what the two
Pithadhipatis opined about RM, you arrive at a completely wrong conclusion
from what that book reports as the reply of 'Gurugal', misinterpreting even
that!! That shows your bias that you have formed, completely ill-informed.
Unless you choose to study the Advaita shastra seriously under a qualified
Acharya, the meaning of these things will remain clouded and the result is
such opinions that you try to form for yourself and worse, foist them upon
others too!!

regards
subrahmanian.v