[Advaita-l] The safe way

[Aditya Kumar]

Fully agree with everything you have said. Couldn't have put it better. You have said - there is a vicious fight within tradition - fully agree with this after familiarising a little with various sub-commentators. And yet, the narrative is that these are just different ways of approaching the same goal and that all sorts of views can be reconciled. If you choose not to, then you opt out of 'traditional view'. You are a heretic. Shri Harsha says this somewhere - Even if the final inference that there is fire on a mountain is correct, the way in which it has been inferred is wrong because you mistook fog for smoke! So your inference borne of error is essentially wrong but your conclusion is merely a co-incidence!
The major issue is that there are very few who study these subjects. Even in this forum there are only a handful who participate. So only those views resound. Fresh seekers are either misled by saying don't care to study it's pointless or they will teach their own versions which they believe. Most Vedantic teachers are part-timers or pensioners who have found a new hobby (which is not bad but they are not always correct). I wondered if there are any authentic teachers of Vedanta who are also sadhakas and so I decided to listen to a Sanyasin. He spoke for an hour but said very little. The contents of the talk could have been covered in 5 mins but he went on for an hour or more. It was almost like a stand-up comedy where he tried to make people laugh. Vedantic comedy. Haha. 
The very few people who actually study, try to honestly understand the real intent by comparing and analysing various views are mostly Indians who are studying in some western universities. But even they suffer from few shortcomings as is natural. But it's a real shame that we Indians have lost the scholastic aptitude and have turned into sycophants. 

      From: Bhaskar YR via Advaita-l <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
 To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>; Advaitin <advaitin at yahoogroups.com> 
Cc: Bhaskar YR <bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com>
 Sent: Wednesday, 13 September 2017 10:09 AM
 Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] The safe way
   
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


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