Practical Vedanta

[Sunder Hattangadi]

On Wed, 5 May 1999 21:43:00 +0530, mmsudan <mmsudan at BOL.NET.IN> wrote:

>Namaste,
>
>    Last month when I became member of the list I was not aware about the
>nature and level of discussion and exchanges taking place. While most of
the
>contents are interesting and illuminating but I feel the contents to be
more
>scholarly than practical.

I find this cliche amusing! Vedanta is nothing if not practical, only one
has to practise it!

What have the Vedantins practised and taught for centuries? In the last 2
centuries alone, Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Dayananda, Ramana, Aurobindo,
Sivananda,Sai Baba, and a host of other luminaries have done it and shown
us by their examples how to do it. If we spend a little time in these
columns to do the'shravana, manana, and nididhyasana', it is also a form of
practice. We may not have the individual or collective strength to change
the rest of the world society, but just the little world we have to deal
with daily.



as to how
>do we make India once again, in real and practical sense, world leader in
>spiritualism? How do we make teachings of SankarAcArya relevant and
>attractive  to the common man and particularly to the young
>generation?

India's destiny is in Divine hands. There is no need to aspire
to 'national' or international leadership; whoever adopts the universal
teachings of Vedanta, will be the respected elder brother of humanity.

The dangers are not 'foreign'; they lurk within all the time ready to
spring forth at the least opportunity.

The small step to reform the world has to start with individuals, scholars
or otherwise!