[Advaita-l] The safe way

[V Subrahmanian]

Dear Bhaskar ji,

The excerpt was not intended to send a message that you have tried to
understand from it. It is the concluding part of a parable titled 'Teachers
to Avoid' on p.282 in the book Edifying Parables, available as a free
download e-book here:

http://www.sringeri.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Edifying-Parables.pdf

regards subbu

p.s: My earlier post on this topic was 'sent' inadvertently.




On Wed, Sep 13, 2017 at 11:09 AM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
wrote:

>
>
> 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
>>
>>
>>
>