Nature of Consciousness

[Parisi & Watson]

-----Original Message-----
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <ramakris at EROLS.COM>
To: ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG
<ADVAITA-L at LISTS.ADVAITA-VEDANTA.ORG>
Date: Thursday, July 22, 1999 7:35 PM
Subject: Re: Nature of Consciousness


>If advaita reveals the truth, then certainly any other system opposed
>to it cannot reveal the truth. Obviously! Thus, advaita-vedAnta alone
>has a monopoly over truth, if it reveals the truth.
>By the same token, if I am mistaken and some other system reveals the
>truth (dual or non-dual), then that system alone has a monopoly over
>truth.
>
>There is no need to speculate whether the veda will die out. It can't
>because of it's eternality.


Or it could be that, like any human enterprise, Vedanta includes some
profound truth without necessarily encompassing all of it, and perhaps some
areas that are fuzzy or slightly questionable. I call it a human enterprise
because I can't imagine any adequate justification for viewing it as
"unauthored," any more than I believe the Angel Gabriel dictated the Koran
to Muhammad, or that God personally wrote the Gospels. To believe these
things is your choice, but you might have more in common with some religious
teachers in the US than you realize.

Robert.