introduction from VISWANATHAN KRISHNAMURTHY (fwd)

[Ravi Mayavaram]

On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Govind Rengarajan wrote:

>On Thu, 2 Apr 1998, Ravi Mayavaram wrote:
>
>> namaskAram Prashant
>>
>> Thanks for sharing your views.  Silence need not mean acceptance. It
>> can also mean ignorance. Often I am quiet because for a little-read,
>> ignorant person like me, the correct thing is not always obvious. Like
>> many in India these days, I was also lost in the agnosticism and
>> wasted my precious youth reading useless modern day philosophers. Like
>> many I also started the journey from the new age junkyard. But I am
>                                                  ^^^^^^^^
>
>Ravi, you have a special status in this list - you are the owner!
>;-) So you, more than anybody else, should be careful with your
>language. If I were a devotee of whatever new-age stuff you are
>talking about, words like junkyard and disgusting will sound
>pretty much like spice girls to me. It will be best if you can
>define the scope of this list clearly and unambiguously (and also
>unemotionally ;-) This way everybody will be sure what the list
>stands for and whether they are interested in it. The problem when a
>list owner voices his *opinions* is that the members tend to get
>confused whether it is the list policy or just personal opinions. So
>you can solve the problem easily by just clearly stating the scope
>of this forum.
>
>On a personal note, I can understand that this forum is served
>better if discussions were to center on advaita vedaanta and not
>shoot off into some other stuff, but why do you call all the new-age
>stuff junkyard? Well, due to bad karma I am sure, people like me
>strayed away from our true heritage. The "new-age" stuff was
>the initial (at our level of understanding) turn-around point, and
>in that sense, they are significant.
>
>Let me know what you think...
>
>-gr
>
>

namaskAram

I am sorry for using the word "Junkyard". I meant it more against
myself than others. I apologize for that.

About the forum, it is only for discussing advaita vedanta. This forum
is to discuss the advaita as taught by shankara. Other side topics can
come in when it is relevant to advaita. Bhakti is one central element
of advaita.  Even though ultimately jnana leads to liberation, always
Adi shankara and shankaraacharyas have emphasized on bhakti a lot
There is so much work promoting bhakti in the advaita tradition.  I
have NEVER confused the list members on what this list is about.

When we say advaita vedanta , it means only what shankara taught. All
other monistic and non-dualistic philosophies may have something in
common with it, but they are not advaita vedanta as such. Many such
philosophies may not be astika in the first place. To stray a little
bit is OK. But the introduction of Vishwanathan Krishnamoorthy and
some other discussions strayed far away.

I should emphasize again that bhakti is emphasized a lot in advaita.
Why do you think shankara wrote so much work promoting it. Why do
shankaraacharyaas again and again advise people about it. For some
reason, except for the beautiful posts by Anand, that element was
lacking in the list. Buddhism and buddhist teaching has NO place in
this list It is a nAstika school.

I am not only a maintainer, but also a member. I dont like to write to
the list as a manager of the list, but as a user.


For most part, I think I have kept it open. Only thing is, now
addition of members is through the list owner.

Aside

I disagree with you on the point that new age tradition, brought in a
turning point to us. It is God's grace that saved us from that. It is
through association with good people, by God's grace, changes us.

I again apologize for the use of the word junkyard. I should have been
polite about it.  I am sorry for forwarding this to list without
asking you. Since it points out my mistake, I wanted it to be known
to all. I hope you do not mind it.

Ravi

rAmAya rAmabhadrAya rAmachandrAya vedase
raghunAthaya nAthAya sItAyAH pataye namaH