Spiritual Erudition

[M Suresh]

Harry Fleenor wrote:

> Are you trying to say that nonintellectual people cannot realize their
> own *True Nature*? Of course not.
> Next to the light of the *Self* all the writings of Sankara aren't even
> one candlepower in the midday sun. So even though Sankara has helped
> to remove layers of ignorance he must be abandoned with all other
> appearing phenomena once the jewel has been found. :>

  I would like to point out that Sri. Ramana Maharishi realized the self
  through practice alone. The only scholarly aid he got was the word
  Arunachala he heard from one of his relatives.

  However he studied the
  texts of Shankara AFTER realization. So I do not agree that the works
  of great people are only to be studied in the initial stages and to
  be abandoned later. Both scholarship and practice have their parts to
  play in the removal of ignorance which makes us forget the ever present
  self.

-Suresh.