message to my friends

[Jaldhar H. Vyas]

On Sat, 8 Aug 1998, Sankaran Jayanarayanan wrote:

> Actually, what *you* are driving at is strictly non-sense. For one
> thing, Ramana did not say "one's conduct is determined by one's
> praarabdha." He said "one's course of conduct..." which is something
> quite different. If I'm born in India as a male, it is quite unlikely
> that I wear a kimono when I greet people, as I almost certainly would
> were I born a Japanese woman. What I am born as is determined by my
> praarabdha karma, which in turn decides my "course of conduct" not my
> conduct per se.
>

Ok, I can accept that. Though it doesn't make any difference to the
subject under discussion.  The fact still remains that prarabdha karma
cannot be used to justify action on the part of a would-be mumukshu.  At
best it explains the tendancy to be more or less involved in karma.  A
person with a proclivity to renunciation still has to actually renounce at
some point.

> Perhaps Ramana meant that he had performed some saadhana in his previous
> life in which he had never striven to move "up" in the eyes of the
> society, and the current of his spiritual thoughts led him away from the
> society in his present life.
>

This is also plausible.  But such an interpretation is even further from
the idea that Ramana is praising mental over physical sannyasa.

> Moreover, Ramana might have renounced his praarabdha karma and still
> have spoken those words for making the listener understand better.

Unfortunately it seems to have had the opposite effect on some readers!

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