Practical Vedanta

Sankaran Panchapagesan panchap at ICSL.UCLA.EDU
Wed May 19 13:57:59 CDT 1999


> Seek out other ways of showing your compassion and kindness, but don't get
> too preachy on mailing lists. Above all, don't take your-self too seriously
> (or else, there will be no place left for the Self). We modern people are
> very cynical about those who preach, and especially of those whose preaching
> tends to get shrill and repetitive.


I understand. Sorry.


Our first reaction is one of cynicism,
> leading to a suspicion that the preacher is phony. The reason behind this
> suspicion is exemplified in one recent post, which said, "I don't want to
> think about brahman and jIvanmukti any more, I want to do this, I want to do
> that." To work for removing caste animosity and untouchability is all
> well-intentioned enough, but the strong ego and the stronger sense of
> doership that goes behind such a statement is obvious. It is a great
> philosophical misnomer to call it vedAnta, and an even greater error to
> align it specifically with advaita vedAnta.


Yes, as long as I preach without practising, it's phony.  Also, I
shouldn't say anything assuming that nobody is doing their dharma.

I shall try to re-read and understand the various posts again. It seems I
have missed something in them.

Ganesh.



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