ADVAITA-L Digest - 4 Jun 1999 to 5 Jun 1999 (#1999-44)

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

Ravisankar S. Mayavaram <msr at COMCO.COM> wrote:

> > I was reading Gary Zukav's "Seat of the Soul" ( not very good
> > like his "Dancing Wu Li Masters"). He observes that since soul is
> > beyond ( or outside) the concept of time, it experiences all the
> > incarnations simultaneously. Hence any spiritual effort in any of
the
> > incarnations benefits all the other incarnations(that gives me
> > enthu to meditate regularly now, in this incarnation!!).
> >
> >  This idea doesn't go in hand with our concepts of Sanjitha and
> > Prarabdha karma(or at least with my understanding of these terms).
> > Can anyone comment on this?
> > --

[ ... ]

> I did not know that the past will come and haunt in the form of
archives ;-)).
> May be this should
> be added  to prArabdha and sa~nchita, as Archive karma!!  Gary Zukav
makes many
> mistakes in his philosophy and this is one among them. I am able to
catch these
> mistakes better after three years of training in advaita-L.

It's best to ignore Zukavs book. He misinterprets much of the quantum
mechanics in his book. Not surprising, since he is a journalist. Even
some physicists can get into some weird reasonings. The famous Fritjof
Capra, in his Tao of Physics, claims that Eastern religions in general
say that the ultimate truth is beyond words. Then he quotes Heisenberg
(or some other famous physicist) on how the electron is beyond
description as it is neither a wave nor a particle. This is apparently
supposed to show that Eastern religions and modern physics concur with
each other. Complete nonsense, to say the least. I don't know where
they get all these guys.

Some authors manage to combine philosophy and physics and still point
out accurately the role of both. Schrodingers "What is Life?",  "Mind
and Matter" and "My view of life", especially the last book, are
excellent. There are a few errors here and there where he
misinterprets (just a little bit) some concepts in the upanishhads.
Overall, however, they are excellent pieces. Heisenbergs "Physics and
Philosophy" is also an excellent book.

Rama