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Re: ARTICLE : Becoming Hindu
: Advaita Vedanta says that Karma and Jnana are completely distinct. For a
: Jnani there is no longer need to perform acts. However Advaita is also
: extremely clear that only a sannyasi can be considered a Jnani. (Because
: anyone who had truly realized Brahman would not feel the need to stay in
: worldly life a minute longer.) Very few of the followers of Vivekanand are
: sannyasis so the rest should be walking the path of Dharma right? However
: we see that the level of observence of these people is in general very low.
: What's the problem? Either Vivekanand failed to get the message across to
: his followers or he only pays lip service to the idea that non-sannyasis
: should strictly follow dharma.
I don't know about other chapters, but in the local RV Vedanta Society,
there are two distinct groups of people: devoutees (of Ramakrishna) and
attendees (to the various meetings). (I favour the second group.)
: How convenient. In the Vedantic tradition we have certain authoritative
: texts and logical reasoning. If some Acharya makes some claim, this can be
: verified by anyone with a modicum of intelligence.
: What you are proposing is nothing more than a cult of personality. Some
: self-proclaimed "realized" person makes some unfounded claims and we're
: just supposed to follow along. Far from being Vedanta this is the very
: essence of avidya.
Which is why it is so necessary to follow some tradition. Let the teacher
and the early students determine if that person is illuminated. Then if
the group still exists several generations down the line (or more than
that if you choose), maybe there's something to that particular belief.
If I met someone claiming to be illuminated, I would listen to what they
said, compare it to what I could verify, and then decide. At some point
in time they would need to give some irrefutable proof of illumination.
But that should occur after they were a teacher.
I've met people off the street claiming to be someone or something or have
a title, but they couldn't back it up with teaching. There's a certain
style there, a certain authority.
Bests,
Jay
