[Advaita-l] Web-sites related to advaita

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Dear list-members,

Here are some web-sites of interest to advaitins:

1. http://ignca.nic.in/agni.htm - a web-site with an image collection
of the agnicayana ritual. It's very comprehensive. I hope the
multi-media CD comes out soon.

2. http://www.namboothiri.com/ - generally about nambbothiris
(brahmins indigeneous to Kerala). They have a page on sa.nkara (of
course!) - http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/sankaraachaaryar.htm.
Apparently, there is a also a tradition in Kerala that Sankara
established 4 mutts *inside* Kerala and each of the 4 disciples
(suresvara, etc) put one of *their* own disciples in charge of the 4
mutts - http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/madhoms.htm

They also believe that sankara established a list of 64 things *not*
to do, especially for Kerala -
http://www.namboothiri.com/articles/anaachaarams.htm. Some are quite
the reverse of what I have been taught, but most seem similar to other
parts of India. Especially interesting is #57 "Saiva, Vaishnava and
other such distinctions shall not exist". That is indeed the case even
now in Kerala. The last time I went to India, I had the opportunity to
visit many temples in Kerala, since my wife is from Kerala. It is
refreshingly free of the "my god is better than yours" nonsense
rampant in Tamil Nadu.

There is a page on the soma yaagam conducted in 2003 -
http://www.namboothiri.com/somayaagam/index.html. Unfortunately an
animal substitute had to be used instead of an actual animal for the
sacrifice, due to fear of "animal rights activists". But still, there
are some nice photographs of the yaagam.

There is also good info on the various vedas present in Kerala in the web-site.

3. Finally, a web-site on one of the most powerful temples,
guruvayoor. The power of the temple and the vigraha of bhagavaan is
certainly some thing which should be experienced - 
http://www.guruvayurdevaswom.org/

Rama