[Advaita-l] Re: Advaita-l Digest, Vol 2, Issue 40

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Tue, 10 Jun 2003, "Jay Nelamangala" <jay at r-c-i.com> wrote:

>Let me first apologize for using the term "drink a cup poison"  on you.
>I should have used  "third person"  in that sentence.   I hope you
>understand that I am not really challenging you to drink a cup of poison.

Unlike you, I know when the word "you" means "one". However, your offered 
apology is unnecessary, in light of the following ...

>First sit in this vyAvahAric world and postulate  a theory that this world
>and its contents are all an illusion,   when asked to drink the illusory
>poison, go to the  seeking place  in the hide-and-seek game and say,
>it is  vyAvahAric truth that by drinking it,  the poison is going to take
>the jeeva out of this illusory body  in this vyAvahAric  world so won't
>drink the illusory poison.   Then come to the hiding place in the game,
>and declare  that the same jeeva in this body that you were
>trying to protect a moment ago,   declare it  to be Brahman, and you
>know it because you have already  "experienced"  that you are indeed
>that  Brahman,  but as the poison cup is dangled again,   come out of
>the hiding place and run to the seeking place where you can refuse to
>drink it.

Firstly, you might want to view this as a hide-and-seek game, but let me 
point out to you that this is a blind refusal to even begin understanding 
which perspective advaita comes from. Secondly, the advaitin simply refuses 
to play any hide-and-seek game you impose upon him. Thirdly, if you offer a 
cup of poison to someone and he refuses, it is either because he is not a 
jnAnI and is afraid of the poison, or because he is a jnAnI but 
compassionately wants to save you from the sin of killing his body.

When we say, na hanyate hanyamAne SarIre, we mean precisely that. The Atman 
does not die, but the body dies and if you kill another body through poison, 
the sin belongs to you. The jnAnI does not need your certificate whether he 
is a jnAnI or not. Take your pick, but if your mind tends towards poison, 
don't give us this tall tale that you respect everybody and then expect us 
to believe it.

>How long are you guys going to play this hide-and-seek game on us?

You are free to remove yourself from this game that you yourself have 
imposed.

>Look at Prahallada,  he drank a cup of poison that his father game him
>not because the poison was illusory and had only vyavahAric truth.
>He drank it because even as a child he had the full knowledge that
>it was Parabrahman that made him, his father, the poison, and gave
>power to the poison to kill people who drink it.
>So,  the "samhAra-kartrtva" is not really poison's but it is Parabrahman's.
>Because Prahallad had full knowledge of this,  and because of this
>knowledge,  Parabrahman's full grace was on that little boy,
>the poison could not do a thing to him.
>
>So,  instead of throwing away our lifes  playing these hide-and-seek games
>  let us become devotees like  prahallAda.

Hah, what galling pomposity! What do you know about the devotion of those 
who want to know Brahman?

If you know all this about the knowledge that Prahlada had, you must also 
have the above-mentioned full knowledge and thereby the full grace of 
Parabrahman. If you wish to preach to us about devotion, are you prepared to 
take the poison yourself? If you are not so inclined, it follows that you do 
not know the first thing of what you want to talk about. Hence, desist from 
your self-designed hide-and-seek game and first become a true devotee 
yourself. And stop telling us what we need to do. We have much better guides 
in our tradition to follow than you and your posts.

It is interesting to note who is the offerer and the intended recipient of 
poison - once upon a time, Hiranyakashipu offered poison to Prahlada, and 
here you are, offering poison to us (not in the first person per se - you 
know what I mean).

Vidyasankar

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