[Advaita-l] (Alleged) Internal Inconsistencies in the Advaita Tradition

Rajaram Venkataramani rajaramvenk at gmail.com
Wed Jun 29 17:09:44 CDT 2011


very valid.

On Wed, Jun 29, 2011 at 7:35 PM, Shyam <shyam_md at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Pranams Rajaram
>
> If you examine Sankara's commentary in the very excerpt I alluded to - what
> does
> He say? - vid. "He (the Lord) stands within the realm of the phenomenal
> vyavaharavishaye in the relation of a ruler to the so-called jivAs or
> cognitional Selfs - vijnanatmanah, which indeed are one with his own Self
> svatmabhutaneva--just as the portions of ether enclosed in jars and the
> like are
> one with the universal ether- but are limited by the assemblage of bodies
> and
> senses produced from name and form - namarupakrta
> karyakaranasanghatanurodhino -
> and that are conjured up by Avidya avidyapratyupasita" he clearly talks
> about
> the relation of many jivAs being in essence One and more so that One Self
> being
> non-different from the Lord. Be it abhasa vada, pratibimba vada, or
> avaccheda
> vada, all these prakriyas find resonance and legitimacy across the breadth
> of
> the AchAryA's prasthana trayi bhashyas - which latter then renders
> reconcilatory
> recourses rendundant.
>
> And what is the sampradaya really speaking? What is its role or purpose? Is
> it a
> geopolitical entity entrusted with the task of listing a charter of
> mutually
> agreed upon postulates concerning metaphysical truths? I do not believe so
> -
> what it is simply an unbroken lineage based on a teaching methodology, in
> Upanisadic instruction handed down by the revered Bhagawatpada. The
> recipient
> for this teaching, the student is not merely a jijnasu, but much more
> critically, a mumukshu, whose singlepointed pursuit is moksha, and moksha
> alone.
> His aim then is at the paramartha, the vyavahara he already knows only too
> well
> to be his inescapable reality!.....on that score, understanding whether his
> jivahood status is on account of a destitute reflection or an imprisoned
> limitation makes not an iota of difference to his intolerable
> samsAra-bhAvA,
> which alone he seeks to transcend.
>
> An elaborate expertise in and knowledge of these seemingly diverse
> prakriyas can
> fetch one PhDs, book titles, and bloated egos but does little in improving
> one's
> nishtA in the aham brahmAsmi bhAvA. It is interesting to read what Shri
> Roodurmum concludes in his book "Bhamati and Vivarna: a critical
> approach"...after pages after pages of a exhaustive analysis of all these
> polemic positions - "As a matter of fact , it is seen from an analysis of
> the
> Bhamati views as well as those of the Vivarna, as concerns the individual
> selves, as well as their nature and their relation to Brahman, that both
> schools
> postulate more or less the same doctrines"... !!
>
> I believe Vedanta/Advaita, in essence, is extraordinarily simple - the
> infinite
> I seek without is the verisame infinite within, as what I take myself to me
> is
> but a phantasmic representation of an amalgamation fashioned of the
> nothingness
> of name and form alone. Understanding this is not extraordinarily
> difficult, but
> owning up to this is extraordinarily daunting - the majority of us who do
> not,
> find it safer instead, to take cover in the impregnable fortress of a
> perennially self-imposed incomplete understanding, a passport that permits
> us to
> stay distracted in the samsaric shabdajala, of prodigious polemics and
> perplexing prakriyas.
>
> Hari OM
> Shri Gurubhyoh namah
> Shyam
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Rajaram Venkataramani <rajaramvenk at gmail.com>
> To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <
> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
> Sent: Tue, June 28, 2011 1:43:45 PM
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] (Alleged) Internal Inconsistencies in the Advaita
> Tradition
>
>
> BTW, my question is aimed at learning how the sampradaya explains
> internal inconsistencies - e.g. one jiva or many.
>
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