[Advaita-l] Thoughts of A Novice to Learned People

[Navin Rajaram]

Hari Om,

Jaldhar H. Vyas wrote:

>On Mon, 14 Feb 2005, Girish Ramadurgam wrote:
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>  
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>>I feel the true meaning of Advaita tries to convey is 'Every one is
>>Brahman'. I mean see if I am Brahman then isn't everyone Brahman.
>>
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>>
>
>Girish, what you have written is true as far as it goes but consider this:
>
>why is this shastra called Advaita and not eka?  If as you say the goal
>is to consider everything (not just everyone) as Brahman then doesn't
>"one" Vedanta sound better than "not-two" Vedanta?  But you see it is
>"two"-ness which is the natural state of affairs.  This must be
>transcended and _then_ one-ness is revealed.  That is the goal of this
>shastra.  In order to achieve this one must be able to discriminate
>between one and two.  This is the root of all the arguments.
>
>  
>
Jaldharji, in the context of the present discussion, what is gained by 
discriminating between a shudra and non shudra? To extend Girish's 
reasoning a little further, are we not going deeper into 
dichotomies(two_ness) and/or holding on to one of the sides of these 
dichotomies while the aim is to transcend these very dichotomies?

Agreed that it is necessary to discriminate, but if transcending was the 
ultimate goal, how are we to judge who is what and is judgement 
necessary at all in the event of the purpose being to even transcend 
buddhi that leads to this judgement?

Hair Om,
Navin