[Advaita-l] Ramana's method

[Sanjay Srivastava]

Dear Sri Suresh:

With due regards to opinion of Sri Sadnanda and others, let me point
out that Bhagwan Ramana's method as understood by his close disciples
including Sri Sadhu Om, Sri Murugannar, Sri Laxman Sharma etc. is
quite different from shAstra vichAra as advocated by traditional
vedanta. By close disciples I do not mean just having physical
proximity with Sri Bhagwan. They actually imbibed Sri Bhagwan's method
and occasionally got confirmation by Sri Bhagwan himself. There is no
reason to believe that somehow Sri Bhagwan's close disciples missed
his message, which others who did not have any contact with him, are
privy. Moreover I do not think that people like Sri Sadhu Om, Sri
Murugannar, Sri Laxman Sharma can be placed in what is pejoratively
called "neo advaitin" group.

Sri Laxman Sharma was actually a vedic scholar and well versed in the
method of traditional vedanta, which he considered ineffective. He has
mentioned that for him Upanishads are useful only to the extent they
confirm Sri Bhagwan's  words, which are the primary authority for him.
Clearly this stand will be considered a blasphemy in traditional
vedanta circles.

Bhagwan Ramana's method is based on self attentiveness. shAstra
vichAra is purely incidental in this method and is dispensable after
hearing it once from a sage. After hearing it once efforts are
required only to maintain self attentiveness 24 X 7. Asking "Who am I"
is not a verbal enquiry but a tool to maintain 24 X 7 self abidance,
which is the primary method of self realization. You can get the
clearest expression of Sri Bhagwan's method in Sri Sadhu Om's "Path of
Sri Ramana - Part 1" and in Sri Michael James' "Happiness and the Art
of Being".

It is true that Sri Bhagwan often used traditional advaitic concepts
to illustrate his points. However, when quotes from scriptures of
other traditions were put to him, he was able to give advaitic
interpretation to them with equal effortlessness. If you visit various
discussions on arunachala-ramana forum you will find that there is lot
of resentment among Sri Bhagwan's disciples against traditional
advaita vedanta school that this school is actually twisting Sri
Bhagwan's message to establish shAstra vichAra as the true self
enquiry, while Sri Bhagwan never intended this. There is another
charge against this school that even though it calls itself
"traditional vedanta", it is not traditional at all. In view of Sri
Bhagwan's devotees, the lineage of so called "traditional vedanta" is
actually quite modern and starts from Sri Chinmayananda Swami - not
before. If you explore the lineage of traditional vedanta teachers
today, it seems to merge at Sri Chinmayananda Swami. There does not
seem to be any visible effort to trace this lineage to Bhagwan
Shankara. Hence Bhagwan Ramana's devotees question "traditional
vedanta" school's claim to "traditional" label.

praNAm



On Sun, Oct 7, 2012 at 1:07 AM, kuntimaddi sadananda
<kuntimaddisada at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Shree Suresh - who am I, enquiry will only give the answer to who am I, if it is done properly by anvaya vyatiraka logic or avasthaatraya or pancakosha viveka, by negating whom I am not as I am. That is only tvam padartha vichaara or inquiry of one aspect of tat tvam asi - you are tha.
> To undestand what I have rejected that which I am not, is also I am - as stated in the tat tvam asi -I am that - mahavaakya vichaara, one needs shaastra pramaaNa and therfore requires a teacher who can teach the saastras. Many Ramana followers and many neo advaitins do not understand this problem and think we do not need to study shaastras and all we need to do sit down and findout who am I - without realizing Bhagavan Ramana has himself selected many slokas from Geeta and Vivekachudaamani for study and help in this enquiry.
> Hari Om!
> Sadananda
>
>
>>________________________________
>> From: Suresh <mayavaadi at yahoo.com>
>>To: Advaita <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
>>Sent: Saturday, October 6, 2012 1:15 PM
>>Subject: [Advaita-l] Ramana's method
>>
>>Namaste,
>>
>>Many people are of the view that Ramana's method of self-inquiry is effective to realize nondual awareness. But I am confused. By asking who am I, are we supposed to find an answer? What exactly is the point of the inquiry?
>>
>>Looking for some insights.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Suresh
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