Sage
Sri,Sankara said:- Talk as much philosophy as you like, worship
as many gods as you please, observe ceremonies and sing devotional hymns, but
liberation will never come, even after a hundred aeons, without realizing the
Oneness.
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the purva mimam.sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.
Sage Sri, Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the truth. Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words.
Sage Sri, Sankara' gave religious, ritual or dogmatic instruction to the mass but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.
There are certain principles which are common to all orthodox Advaitic thought, that are taken for granted. Orthodox assumes that the doctrine of karma is valid because they accept the experience of birth, life, death and the world as reality. If they accept the birth, life, death and the world as reality than whatever Sage Sri, Sankara declaration: - Brahman is the truth The World is Unreal everything is Truly Brahman and nothing Else has any value.
Most of the saints and sages of the past are mostly social reformers, thus they are more concerned to the humanism rather than the truth. Their contribution is very valuable to live in the practical world. Thus humanism is part and parcel of the universe, which is mere illusion.
People think love is the means to self-realization but they are unaware of the fact that, love and hate are made of the same stuff. Love is not the means of self –realization. Love is very much necessary in practical life within the practical world. Love implies duality. Whatever is of duality is falsehood. Thus love is reality within the falsehood. Lover and love ceases to exist in reality because the experience of duality is not reality. The experience of practical life within practical world is reality within the waking experience but waking experience itself is mere illusion created out of consciousness. Thus lover and love are one in essence. Thus path of love is religious path because religion is path of individuality or duality.
The humanism is limited to practical life within the practical world. The path of love is path for humanity therefore, it is individualized path. Thus path of love is limited to the physical structure, it cannot transport one to ultimate end. Thus seeker has to understand the fact that the practical life and practical world are part of the mirage from the ultimate standpoint.
According to Advaita Vedanta, the Veda addresses itself to two kinds of audiences - the ordinary ones who desire the transitory heaven and other pleasures obtained as a result of ritual sacrifices, and the more advanced seeker who seeks to know Brahman. Thus, the purva mimam.sa, with its emphasis on the karma kanda of the Vedas, is meant for the first audience, to help lead its followers along the way. However, the Vedanta, with its emphasis on the jnana kanda, is meant for those who wish to go beyond such transient pleasures.
Sage Sri, Sankara varied his practical advice and doctrinal teaching according to the people he was amongst. He never advised them to give up their particular religion or beliefs or metaphysics completely; he only told them to give up the worst features of abuse: at the same time he showed just one step forward towards the truth. Sri, Sankara was extremely precise and careful in his choice of words.
Sage Sri, Sankara' gave religious, ritual or dogmatic instruction to the mass but pure philosophy only to the few who could rise to it. Hence the interpretation of his writings by commentators is often confusing because they mix up the two viewpoints. Thus they may assert that ritual is a means of realizing Brahman, which is absurd.
There are certain principles which are common to all orthodox Advaitic thought, that are taken for granted. Orthodox assumes that the doctrine of karma is valid because they accept the experience of birth, life, death and the world as reality. If they accept the birth, life, death and the world as reality than whatever Sage Sri, Sankara declaration: - Brahman is the truth The World is Unreal everything is Truly Brahman and nothing Else has any value.
Most of the saints and sages of the past are mostly social reformers, thus they are more concerned to the humanism rather than the truth. Their contribution is very valuable to live in the practical world. Thus humanism is part and parcel of the universe, which is mere illusion.
People think love is the means to self-realization but they are unaware of the fact that, love and hate are made of the same stuff. Love is not the means of self –realization. Love is very much necessary in practical life within the practical world. Love implies duality. Whatever is of duality is falsehood. Thus love is reality within the falsehood. Lover and love ceases to exist in reality because the experience of duality is not reality. The experience of practical life within practical world is reality within the waking experience but waking experience itself is mere illusion created out of consciousness. Thus lover and love are one in essence. Thus path of love is religious path because religion is path of individuality or duality.
The humanism is limited to practical life within the practical world. The path of love is path for humanity therefore, it is individualized path. Thus path of love is limited to the physical structure, it cannot transport one to ultimate end. Thus seeker has to understand the fact that the practical life and practical world are part of the mirage from the ultimate standpoint.
The simple reason is that the average
person may have desire for knowledge but when the whole society is immersed in
belief system and feeling himself out of place because of societal
fear and surroundings circumstances and he thinks it unfits him to pursue the
path of truth.
The seeker of truth is one who is ready
verify and has courage to accept and reject the truth when he finds out what is
truth and what is untruth. The meek will stick to their inherited conditioning
remain experiencing duality as reality.
When a yogi realizes that yoga is not
the means to acquire self-knowledge than takes up deeper self-search by
dropping all the yogic discipline. Yoga
is inadequate and useless in quenching his inner thirst. By indulging in deeper
self –search he realizes the self is formless consciousness and the three
states are mere mirage created out of consciousness. Therefore he attains
Gnana.
The ignorance is the cause
of experiencing all sorrow and calamities as reality. Thus eradicating the
ignorance completely is necessary. And this is possible only through
self-knowledge or Gnana. Thus, there is
no other road to freedom other than Gnana.
There is no other entrance other than except Gnana. The ignorance will vanish only when the non-dual wisdom dawns.
That
is why Sage Sri Sankara, indicated in
Bhaja Govindam : - (Jnana Viheena Sarva Mathena Bajathi na Muktim janma Shatena) - one
without knowledge does not obtain liberation even in a hundred births, no
matter which religious faith he follows.
Dualist Sages
have written big volumes about the soul. Yet they are quite ignorant of the
fact that the ‘I’ about which they write itself comes and goes and has no
permanent existence, is only an idea after all.
Modern Ramanuja- J.Krishnamurti describes to perfection is the awakening to Reality—the realization that pure Consciousness alone is, that the perpetually fluctuating and evanescent contents of the mind derive from it. This awakening effectively happens in an instant. But in order for the lightning flash to take place, resulting in a firm and unshakable certitude, a long labour is necessary, which he seems to underestimate. “Truth is a pathless land” is his answer.
Many thinkers feel J.K’s teaching seems essentially negative, a potent but bitter medicine for those imprisoned by institutional cults. He breaks the student’s bonds, but then leads him to a vast desert where he abandons him. The ultimate state of consciousness he describes is that of the traditional sage or fully enlightened being, but he does not show us the process leading to the realization of this state. He describes marvelously the goal, but does not indicate the steps to be taken: his recurring phrases "unified consciousness" and "let go" are not a road-map.
J.Krishnamurti‘s approach was more practical, and he stuck with the reality of the world, he took it as real.
Modern Ramanuja- J.Krishnamurti describes to perfection is the awakening to Reality—the realization that pure Consciousness alone is, that the perpetually fluctuating and evanescent contents of the mind derive from it. This awakening effectively happens in an instant. But in order for the lightning flash to take place, resulting in a firm and unshakable certitude, a long labour is necessary, which he seems to underestimate. “Truth is a pathless land” is his answer.
Many thinkers feel J.K’s teaching seems essentially negative, a potent but bitter medicine for those imprisoned by institutional cults. He breaks the student’s bonds, but then leads him to a vast desert where he abandons him. The ultimate state of consciousness he describes is that of the traditional sage or fully enlightened being, but he does not show us the process leading to the realization of this state. He describes marvelously the goal, but does not indicate the steps to be taken: his recurring phrases "unified consciousness" and "let go" are not a road-map.
J.Krishnamurti‘s approach was more practical, and he stuck with the reality of the world, he took it as real.
Sri, Sankara founded his Advaita
Vedanta either on reason independent of sruti or on sruti confirmed by
reason." Sri, Sankara's commentary on the Mandukya Upanishad,
II, 1: This [the unreality of duality] is borne out by the Srutis
... But it is possible also to show the unreality of the object world even from
pure reasoning, and this second chapter is undertaken for that purpose.
Sri, Sankara himself had
often said that his philosophy was based on Sruti, or revealed scripture.
This may be because Sri, Sankara addressed the ordinary man, who finds security
in the idea of causality and thus in the idea of God—and Revelation is
indispensable to prove the latter. He believed that those of superior
intelligence, have no need of this idea of divine causality, and can therefore
dispense with Sruti and arrive at the truth of Non-Dualism by pure
reason.
There is nothing more rational, more
intelligible and more un-dogmatic insights of Sage Sri, Sankara, is to drop all the
theistic non-duality or Advaita which is meant for those who are incapable and
not receptive to realize the ultimate truth or Brahman.
If one merely theorizes, tries to understand through his intellect and there contended he cannot become a Gnani but he becomes a scholar or pundit. Seeker of truth must make what he has understood and assimilated has to be realized, to get firm conviction of the non- dualistic truth or ultimate truth or Brahman, than only it is possible for him to transcend all the limitations of the experience of form, time and space.
If one merely theorizes, tries to understand through his intellect and there contended he cannot become a Gnani but he becomes a scholar or pundit. Seeker of truth must make what he has understood and assimilated has to be realized, to get firm conviction of the non- dualistic truth or ultimate truth or Brahman, than only it is possible for him to transcend all the limitations of the experience of form, time and space.
