retirement from the forum

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Mon, 3 Aug 1998, Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian wrote:

> In an ideal world, as I am given to believe, we should all develop
> "unorthodox" elements, upon which everything will be OK. After which, as
> I am given to believe, Jaldhar will include a bhajan to Ramakrishna
> Paramahamsa in his daily anushhTAna. That would certainly be a good
> candidate for Ripley's Believe it or not :-). Anyway, I don't think that
> (embracing "unorthodox" elements) is ever going to happen.

Ramakrishna wasn't an Advaitin and the organization that claims to be his
followers is virtually devoid of Advaita content.  I've said that and
until I see some evidence to the contrary, I'll keep saying that.  But
I've never said Ramakrishna wasn't a nice man or didn't have any good
qualities.  Amongst my gurus is a Vishishtadvaitin. I respect him very
much but I don't call him an Advaitin.  The Mandir I usually go to is
affiliated with Vallabhas sampradaya.  It's a nice place but Advaita is
not taught there.  Similiarly I know a lot about other religions.  I
appreciate some of their contents.  But that doesn't mean that I think
they are all mystically part of Advaita Vedanta.

I respect people who think differently from me for what they are rather
than what I think they ought to be or what they pretend to be.  This
actually makes me more tolerant and broad-minded than any of the so-called
eclectics.

--
Jaldhar H. Vyas <jaldhar at braincells.com>