[Advaita-l] The 'Snake-and-ladder' game - The Spiritual path

[Raghav Kumar Dwivedula]

You are going off tangent. The issue raised is not whether Ishwara has the
power to take any form. He has taken the forms of  both rakshasas, demons
and animals and devas and human beings. All forms both benign and malignant
are Ishvara alone.

The point i am repeatedly making and not getting through to you is  that,
as far as worship and  upAsana by a bhakta is concerned,  a devotee has to
follow the shAstra , he cannot follow his own whims and fancies about
Ishvara and give a foolish justification that since Advaita accomodates
conceiving Ishvara in different ways, my own self-concocted method too is
acceptable. Not so,  says the Gita , only all those diverse forms of
worship which are in accordance with shAstra are valid. These forms given
in the Vedic tradition are numerous in number but it's not as if every
single "form" born of some whim and flight of fancy  which occurs in the
mind of someone can be  called "bhakti" and can be accepted in the Vedic
tradition. No way Advaita does not say 'anything goes'  as far as worship
is concerned. Please study these two verses of Ishvaras ..
 एतस्य आसुरीसम्पत्परिवर्जनस्य श्रेयआचरणस्य च शास्त्रं कारणम् ।
शास्त्रप्रमाणात् उभयं शक्यं कर्तुम् , न अन्यथा । अतः —

यः शास्त्रविधिमुत्सृज्य
वर्तते कामकारतः ।
न स सिद्धिमवाप्नोति
न सुखं न परां गतिम् ॥ २३ ॥
 भाष्यम्
<http://advaitasharada.sringeri.net/display/bhashya/Gita?page=16&id=BG_C16_V23&hlBhashya=%E0%A4%B5%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%A7%E0%A4%BF%E0%A4%AE%E0%A5%81#bhashya-BG_C16_V23>
यः शास्त्रविधिं शास्त्रं वेदः तस्य विधिं कर्तव्याकर्तव्यज्ञानकारणं
विधिप्रतिषेधाख्यम् उत्सृज्य त्यक्त्वा वर्तते कामकारतः कामप्रयुक्तः सन् , न
सः सिद्धिं पुरुषार्थयोग्यताम् अवाप्नोति, न अपि अस्मिन् लोके सुखं न अपि परां
प्रकृष्टां गतिं स्वर्गं मोक्षं वा ॥ २३ ॥

तस्माच्छास्त्रं प्रमाणं ते
कार्याकार्यव्यवस्थितौ ।
ज्ञात्वा शास्त्रविधानोक्तं
कर्म कर्तुमिहार्हसि ॥ २४ ॥

 The issue which you are avoiding to address for some reason and trying to
take the discussion in some other direction,  is  the licence being
exercised by *church sponsored groups* of replacement of bhajans on Rama
etc., with Jesus etc. This is not acceptable on the name of some misguided
understanding of what it is to tolerate different  forms.

Om





On Thu 9 Aug, 2018, 10:20 PM Kalyan via Advaita-l, <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

> I am afraid you are beating round the bush without answering my main
> question.
>  If Ishwara can take any form to bless his devotee, cant he take the form
> of Jesus?
>
> //.....promotes a 'Jesus' of a certain Nicene creed which punishes
> so-called idolaters and sends off Hindus to limbo/hell for merely
> worshipping an altar in a Hindu temple,....//
> Talking of Hell, here is are gems from Manusmriti -
> 3.17. A Brahmana who takes a Sudra wife to his bed, will (after death)
> sink into hell; if he begets a child by her, he will lose the rank of a
> Brahmana.
>
> 3.249. The foolish man who, after having eaten a Sraddha (-dinner), gives
> the leavings to a Sudra, falls headlong into the Kalasutra hell.
> I am not sure how these examples are any less bigoted than the christian
> example that you have given.
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