[Advaita-l] Inward and outward contemplation

[jaldhar at braincells.com]

(was Re: [Advaita-l] Anugita bhasya)


Owing to all kinds of things going on in my life most of all Shravana masa 
where daily abhishek takes precedence over everything, I am way behind in 
taking part in this list.  Hopefully over the next few days I can remedy 
this.



On Thu, 24 Jun 2021, Ven Balakrishnan via Advaita-l wrote:

>
> On Ramana it always seemed to me that the quest of ‘who am I’ is the 
> fundamental question that Advaita is trying to address.  His essay "Nan 
> Yar” essentially summarises the key aspects of advaitic teaching, 
> without going into the logical reasoning that Sankara does.  Also this 
> ‘who am I’ diving inwardly contemplation, strikes me as comparable to BG 
> in its recommendation to have a constant stream of thought towards the 
> Self.  It is also I think the implication of Brhad Up 3.5.1 when it 
> talks about living on the strength of that knowledge and dwelling on it 
> - as Sankara says in Brhad Up 4.5.15:  neti, neti and renunciation is 
> the final conclusion of it all.

Certainly "who am I?" should be the question every sadhaka should 
ask but why should that require only "inward" contemplation.  It 
should defintely include inward focus but sometimes I think it gets 
forgotten that Brahman is "pervades all this and ten fingers beyond" as 
the purushasukta puts it.  The root bR^inn from which brahman is derived 
also means growth or increase.  Brahman is as much "out there" as "in 
here."

I think where the emphasis gets placed depends a lot on the experience of 
individual mystics.  Some experience a massive collapse of sense of self 
where one seems to be nothing at all. Others have an equally massive 
expansion of consciousness where one becomes everything.  Think of Arjunas 
vishvarupa darshana (though that experience did not go well for him.)  One 
of the reasons I think Ramana appeals to more "modern" types is that in 
the current culture one is taught to think of oneself as an individual, 
and the conditions of modernity leave many as alienated individuals at 
that.  Personally though I am also steeped in modernity, my group 
identity(ies) is/are more important to me and perhaps that's why I don't 
"get" Ramana the way others do.

-- 
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>