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Re: superstitions
In article <39dup4$fs@ucunix.san.uc.edu>,
Vidyasankar Sundaresan <vidya@cco.caltech.edu> wrote:
>In article <3945td$m29@ucunix.san.uc.edu> vijaypai@rice.edu (Vijay
>Sadananda Pai) writes:
>> But I'll quote some sruti for you
>>
>> Rg Veda: om tad visnoh paramam padam sada pasyanti surayah
>> "All the demigods are constantly looking to the supreme feet
>> of Lord Vishnu"
>
>And the same verse goes on to say,
>
>"te brahmaloke parAntakAle paramrtAt parimucyanti sarve" - indicating that
>there is yet another stage of moksha for these nitya sUris, which is that
>of non-difference.
You are entirely extrapolating the part about "which is that of non-difference"
This verse nowhere says anything to that effect. Typical mayavadi tactic.
>So, who disputes that? Shall I quote the Kaivalya upanishad and the
>Sannyasa Upanishad? Are you prepared to accept their statements as Sruti?
I accept sruti. Nevertheless, I am not about to perform
animal sacrifices because those are karma-kanda. Similarly,
there is another stage of theoretically knowing oneself as Brahman.
That stage is not wrong, only incomplete; one must develop the
activities of Brahman, which are to please the Supreme Brahman
through bhakti. Bhakti is superior to karma and jnana, so there
is no point trying some other path.
>
>>
>> Or as sectarian as math majors are when they fanatically argue
>> that "2+2=4 dammit! I know it is." There's no sectarianism in the
>> truth.
>
>Nice try. 2+2=4 is a mathematical truth. Try putting Vedanta into such a
>formula. Why are ashamed of your Vaishnava sectarianism, and why do you
>deny it?
Are you saying that there is no right answer in Vedanta? If so, this is a real
compromise against the rigidness of the very first sutra of the Brahma-sutra
"athato brahma jijnasa" : Now question about the Absolute Truth. It does not
say the Absolute Truths. There is only 1 Absolute Truth, so there can be
no sectarianism with regards to it.
I am not ashamed of being a Vaisnava, and I refuse to consider Krishna
consciousness sectarian. Prabhupada always said that Christians should very
carefully follow the teachings of Jesus, that Muslims should very carefully
follow the Koran, and so forth. The "Holy Name" pamphlet handed out at
a street festival in Houston showed interfaith support for the process
of chanting the Holy Name, citing passages from the Old & New Testaments,
Koran, Buddhist works, etc. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu preached to Muslims in
Prayag entirely by citing verses from the Koran; they realized that the
Koran was subtly hinting at higher advancement through chanting Hare
Krishna, so they started on the Vaisnava path. Their descendants are
still there in Allahabad today and called "Pathan Vaisnavas". So there
is no sectarianism in this process, but there is a lot of sectarianism
in those who insist on rigidly noncommital statements.
>S. Vidyasankar
-- Vijay
