[POSSIBLE SPAM]:Re: [Advaita-l] RE: On the parakAyapraveSa legend about Sankara

[bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com]

praNAms Sri Jagannathan Mahadevan prabhuji
Hare Krishna

JM prabhuji:

I think the meaning of the story is simply that Sankara demonstrated
that experience is a necessary precondition to knowledge. It has to be
taken at face value.

bhaskar :

*experience is a necessary precondition to knowledge* I dont think this
rule is applicable in all circumstances..As Srikanta prabhuji said, I dont
have to have the practical experience of the burns to explain *fire fury*.
Moreover, as Sri Amuthan prabhuji rightly pointed out *individual
experience* is not the valid pramANa in the siddhAnta nirNaya.  If that is
the case mandana would have insisted shankara to observe  karmakanda
vidhi-s to have the *first hand* experience of karmaphala before raising
the objections on pUrvamImAmsa....In that debate between maNdana & shankara
nowhere mandana insisted shankara to have practical *experience* of
yAga/yaJna/hOma/havana is it not??  Why shankara opted for *practical
experience* of sex when the academic/textual understanding of vAtsyAyana
kAma sUtra was more than enough to tackle ubhayabhArati's challenge??!!! is
still a puzzle !!!

JM prabhuji :

Whether it was right for Sankara to experience through another body does
not matter.

bhaskar :

IMHO it definitely matters...when we are following any Ashrama dharma, we
have to adhere to its vidhi-niyama through kAya (body) vAcha (speech)
manasa (mind)... we cannot say let my body observe saNyAsa dharma & my mind
with the help of another body enjoy the sex...prabhuji, dont you think this
is ridiculous??  Infact shankara meticulously insisted on the observance of
saNyAsa dharma in gIta bhAshya.

JM prabhuji:

During the debate, to answer the questions to another, he underwent the
process by which he could get
the right answers himself. Why don't we simply allow Sankara to become the
knower of all other knowledges in his own way through yogic powers?

bhaskar :

it is because shankara taken undue advantage of his yOgic power & misused
it as against his yati dharma....This question would have not been arised
had it been done by some gruhasthAshrami-jnAni like yAgnAvalkya...

JM prabhuji :

If one has a better way of learning the art of love by all means one is
definitely allowed to go for it !

bhaskar :

prabhuji do you mean to say shankara did not know any other better way than
doing this dharma drOha??

JM prabhuji :

To portray sexuality or involvement in sexuality as baneful smacks of
hypocrisy and negation of fundamentals of nature.

bhaskar :

It may be a hypocrisy for you but for a sarvasaNga parityAgi saNyAsi it is
his ashrama dharma.  Being a vaidika dharma follower following saNyAsa
dharma you cannot violate the injuctions of dharma shAstra...more
importantly it is quite unacceptable if it is overlooked by jnAni like
shankara!!!it is an *apachAra* to the saNyAsAshrama dharma.

JM prabhuji:

A brahmajnAni is one who has gained the knowledge gaining which one does
not have to gain
anything more. Lord yama promises so many things to young nachikEta to
wean him away from the quest of brahmajnAna. But still nachikEta
persisted saying that gaining brahmajnAna I will not "need" anything
else. It does not necessarily mean that other forms of knowledge are
encompassed in brahmajnAna and that all brahmajnAni's are necessarily
readily well versed in any other form of knowledge. However, all
brahmajnAni's do have the yogic powers to "readily" gain also the
necessary form of knowledge one way of which Sankara has demonstrated.

bhaskar :

again question is wanting of practical experience in a prohibited field and
textual/intellectual understanding of the same....

Sorry if I said anything wrong here.

Jagannathan.

Hari Hari Hari Bol!!!
bhaskar