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Re: Siva as Yogi?
kstuart@snowcrest.net (Ken Stuart) wrote:
>In an eloquent manner, susarla.krishna@studentserver1.swmed.edu (H.
>Krishna Susarla) elucidated:
>
>>Ramakrishna Balasubramanian (or was that Ken Stuart? Aw, who
>>cares, they're all one anyway) wrote:
>
>I know you are half-joking, but:
>
>- My opinions are very different from Mr. R.B.
O'kay :-)
>- I don't believe any of the new age "everything is one".
I am not sure if R.B is getting this right, but is your post supposed to mean
that I disagree with your statement above and the one below? First of all I
don't know what the "new age" is. The "every thing is one" also needs some
clarification. There is a basic unity behind all this diversity (God, this
sounds too hackneyed). This is called the "self" or "Brahman". Also the name
"new age" is definitely a misnomer. This idea's as old as the Vedas. In the
south Thirumular (a Siva yogi) espoused these ideas (an estimated) 4000 years
back.
>- I do think that it is necessary to surrender to the Supreme Being.
>
Well, so do the advaitins. The supreme being is again the "self" or "Brahaman".
The favorite way of the advaitins is to enquire who the person that is
experiencing everything is. Other ways would be to concentrate on one's Ishta
devata - X, Y or Z. Of course the Ajata advaitic school of thought says that
concentration, mind, guru et al. are delusions and the sole truth is the
"Self". The major texts for this school seem to be the Ribhu Gita (Skanda
Purana) and Yoga Vasihta. This of course does not mean one can do whatever he
"likes" and not reap the consequences. This is final view point and cannot be
used lightly by people. Book learning and intellectual knowledge is something
and actually realizing it is something else (at least for me, it seems a long
way off).
>So please don't lump me in with others, such as Advaitists, especially
>since I'm vishishtadvaitist (sp?)....
Ramakrishnan.
