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Re: Problems in Advaita
H. Krishna Susarla (susarla.krishna@studentserver1.swmed.edu) wrote:
: In keeping with the tradition of oneness, I am condensing all my responses
: to separate people in one article. Advaitins should be proud :)
:
: Santosh Kumar wrote:
:
: >: As I
: >: >understand advaita, the world is as real as a dream. It does
: >:
: >: But a dream is not real.
: >
: >The dream is not real when you come out of the dream, in the
: >dream you never questioned its authenticity. Same is the
:
: Not really. I question the authenticity of my dreams all the time...
:
I did not mean it as an impossibility, but something not
very usual. In the same way, it is possible to negate this
world using the higher consciousness while living in this
world, but very few could achieve this state.
. Also, as my
understanding on this subject goes, once an ordinary person
achieves Nirvikalpa Samadhi, he leaves the body in 21 days.
: >case with this world also. When you are in this world, you
: >perceive it as real.
:
: But if the world we experience around us, with all its qualities and
: variegatedness is false, that still presupposes that such a world actually
: exists *somewhere*.
:
Who said this world is NOT REAL, it is REAL. One can only say that
the present is REAL and the present for us is this world. If you are
convinced that this world is NOT REAL, the netters could benefit
a lot from your experience as regard to Advaita philosophy.
One can view this world as a transitory REALITY as someone
has rightly pointed out in an earlier posting, but not as
"a world actually exists *somewhere*", the world is here
itself, not somewhere else.
: I suggest you read books like "Gospel of Sri
: >Ramakrishna" and "Complete works of Swami Vivekananda"
: >to get a better understanding of Advaita. These books deal
:
: No! I'm sorry, but neither Ramakrishna nor Swami Vivekananda are truly
: representatives of Advaita. If you want to learn Advaita, you should read
: the works of Sri Sankaraachaarya and those of his followers in paramparaa.
: Since Sri Sankaraachaarya is the original exponent of advaita in this age,
: the only persons who can honestly claim to be advaitists are those who
: received teachings from him in disciplic succession.
:
: Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, and other swamis in that class are influenced by
: advaita, but their philosphies are quite clearly a result of time and
: circumstance. Most of these people have, as their primary motivation, the
: desire to water down Vedic philosophy and present it in a form that is
: palatable to Western sensibilities. Then too there is their motivation (not
: necessarily bad) to liberate India from Western political and cultural
: influence. Unfortunately, the philosophy they put forward becomes a mix of
: advaita, nationalism, and philosophical revisionism rather than a sincere,
: spiritual treatise.
I am not an authority on Advaita to comment on your statements
above, but, what I can say is that for atleast some of us,
the teachings of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda
helped understand Advaita. If you can understand Sankaracharya's
teachings, you need not bother about the rest.
Regards,
Santhosh
References:
