An Account of myself (fwd)

[Govind Rengarajan]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 12:40:05 +0530
From: "Radhakrishnan S./MUK/SEEPZ" <radhas at meghdoot.mastek.com>
To: 'Govind Rengarajan' <govind at isc.tamu.edu>
Cc: "'aum at unix.tamu.edu'" <aum at unix.tamu.edu>
Subject: An Account of myself


 Namaskaram  , to all brothers and sisters of Advaita-L . I am indeed
fortunate
 to be in your august company.To tell u something about myself . I am a
computer software engineer  and have been interested in Advaita for the
last 1 year purely after reading the works of Swami Vivekananda , Swami
Rama Tirtha and Ramana Maharshi . I am sure that  Vedanta provides the
most complete answer to the complexities of this universe which had been

haunting me in my lifetime  but I have certain doubts regarding certain
aspects of  Hinduism which I want to get clarified and most importantly
I am thinking
of starting up practice of Raja Yoga .
        Please note I am just a beginner and many of my queries may
sound silly but they are queries which if answered properly will build
up my faith
in Advaita.
        Also I would like to know  more about the list and the
activities of
the members.
Thank You ,
Cheers,
Radhakrishnan Subramanian

>From  Tue Oct 28 10:03:06 1997
Message-Id: <TUE.28.OCT.1997.100306.0500.>
Date: Tue, 28 Oct 1997 10:03:06 -0500
Reply-To: chandran at tidalwave.net
To: "Advaita (non-duality) with reverence" <ADVAITA-L at TAMU.EDU>
From: Ram Chandran <chandran at TIDALWAVE.NET>
Organization: Personal
Subject: Re: The supreme goal
Comments: To: Advaita List <advaita-l at tamu.edu>
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Some additional comments are necessary to understand the process of
Self-Realization.  Faith and intuition are fundamental ingredients for
any religion and Gita is no exception.  The transformation of human
personality to Divine personality can be achieved using the Gita
process.  Gita process contains the Sadhana with full guidance from the
Divine personality, Lord Krishna.  The most admired verse of Gita is
verse 66 in chapter 18.   Ramanuja and Sankara have given great
importance to this verse though they have interpreted differently! The
verse in Sanskrit is as follows:

 Sarvadharmaan  parityajya  maamekam  sharanam  vraja
 Aham tvaa sarvapaapebhyo mokshayishyaami maa shuchah

        The word "Sarvadharmaan" is a complex word and the exact English
translation is almost impossible.  Dharma can mean religion, duty,
logic, notions, traditions, ethics, faith, laws, right, good, etc.
Sarva means all-inclusive or absolute and the complex word
"Sarvadharman" can mean all-religions, all-duties, all-logic,
all-notions, all-traditions, all-ethics, all-laws, all-faith, and
all-laws. Alternatively  "Sarvadharman"  implies all preconceived ideas
about religion, logic, notions, traditions, ethics, faith, laws etc.
Understanding the traditions of the society during the Mahabharat time
is essential for us.  What are the notions of Dharma during Mahabharat
period?  The war between Pandavas and Kauravas is a symbolic war between
dharma and adharma respectively.  The war did not disturb Dhryodhana
whereas Arjuna was worried and depressed.
        Arjuna thought that killing his cousins, grandfather, other relatives,
teachers and friends were a great sin and he was not ready to face the
war.  Training the citizens from childhood maintained the social law and
order on high morals.  Dhryodhana, the prince was an exception to this
Dharmic society.   The king Dhrtarashtra due to great attachment for his
son Dhryodhana has ignored the advice given by  Bhishmar, Vidurar and
Dhronar.  The trained citizens of the society with high moral values
couldn't act against the will of the king.  The question, why does a
citizen with high moral values obey the king when the king asks the
citizen to commit a sin? When the citizen disobeys the king, he (she)
commits a sin according to the moral principles of that time.
Apparently, some sins are preferable to other sins!   Dharma in this
context is  relative and not absolute.  Arjun who was well trained in
Dharmic values was hesitant and fearful to fight and kill his teachers,
cousins, other relatives and friends.  Lord Krishna in this verse gave
an assurance to Arjun that he will fully forgive his sins when he
develops an attitude that he is just a messenger of God.  Total
surrender of one's ego is necessary to remove the illusive plurality
created by the monkey mind.
        The human heart has just enough space for either ego or divinity.  With
the presence of ego, divinity vacates the human heart. All notions of
dharma and adharma, good and bad and  joy and sorrow erupt in human
mind. When we surrender our ego, divinity reenters our heart and all
notions including the sin disappear. No human action is ever possible
without the direction from the total consciousness and ego is the
suppressor of this fundamental truth. When divinity fully occupies the
human heart, religion, sin and action are all abandoned!  Ramanuja will
argue that the grace of God grants the unity between the Atman and
Brahman.  Sankara on the other hand will argue that shredding the ego is
possible with the efforts of the human being and the human can attain
unity with the divinity.  In Sankara's farmwork, all efforts of human
beings come from only one source - The Brahman.   These two great
masters of Vedanta have understood that only one fundamental source of
energy controls all real and imaginary movements of this universe!  The
Divine Grace is an integral part of Human Liberation and TOTAL SURRENDER
of ego  is necessary and sufficient!