[Advaita-l] The safe way

[V Subrahmanian]

On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 10:09 AM, Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com> wrote:

> praNAms
> Hare Krishna
>
> It is advisable to go only to a Guru who belongs to a line of great
> preceptors, is conversant with scriptures, teaches in accordance with the
> scriptures, does not propagate a self-discovered path, is a master of his
> mind and senses, is dispassionate, whose conduct is spotless, who is
> clearly interested in the welfare of the disciple and who does not expect
> anything in return from the disciple.
>
> >  At the risk of sounding pessimistic, it is a fact that we have to admit
> that the slogans like guru should belong to the line of great preceptors,
> shAstravida, saMpradAyavida, shrOtriya, brahmanishTa, his teaching should
> be strictly in line with shAstra & saMpradAya and he should always be pious
> in his character etc. are quite relative, unfortunately other schools of
> thought too, like dvaita, vishishtAdvaita, ISKCONites etc.  revered their
> guru parampara teachers like this, using the same vyAsa, same shuka in
> their guru parampara list, using the same  scriptures gives entirely
> different meaning to it and those who opposes it they would advise the same
> thing as above :-)  Why to go outside?? With one's own tradition, there are
> lot of abhiprAya bheda-s (difference of opinions) there is vicious fight
> within the tradition giving room to sub-traditions, different
> interpretations again reconciliation of those different interpretations
> etc.  bhAmati says it is not like this, it is like that, vivaraNa says No,
> it is not like that our paramAchArya said like this, noble souls like Sri
> appayya dekshitAr comes then to reconcile these differences and tried to
> bring everything under single umbrella citing the reason of prakriya bheda
> etc.  Unfortunately it is still not satisfactorily working within the
> tradition as a result of this, some other person will come-up with the
> other solution and says don’t go to other vyAkhyAna-s, you better stick to
> mUla Acharya-s bhAshya.  And again, there is a voice within the tradition
> that openly announces that we don’t have to just parrot whatever our
> mUlAchArya said, we have our own way of expressing the things so in the
> light of prakriya bheda, vyAkhyAna-s are also equally valid though two
> different vkyAkhyAna-s giving different interpretations to the same shAstra
> vAkya and mUla bhAshya !!! And again, finally with regard to 'spotless'
> conduct, indriya nigraha, vairAgya, viveka etc. though there are some
> questionable 'dark spots', we are ready to push those dark side under the
> carpet of avidyA lesha, prArabdha karma etc. just because of the simple
> fact that we have already accepted them as our guru-s / preceptors.   I am
> not taking any side here, just seeing the existing scenario from the
> outside.  So, IMHO, no idamitthaM answer / stance with regard to above
> expectations.
>
> Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
> bhaskar
>
>
>