[Advaita-l] 'End' not 'Means'

[S Jayanarayanan]

Hi Ger,

--- Ger Koekkoek <gerkoekkoek at wanadoo.nl> wrote:

> For me, as a European, I feel a bit a contradiction at this moment.
> Adwaita 
> cannot be traditional for me, course I am no Hindu.
> Or do you mean that I should stick to questions about:
> "Who am I", from Sri Ramana Maharshi,
> a translation from sayings from Sri Shankara, from the "Ashtavakra
> Samhita", 
> from "Advaita Bodha  Deepika",
> "Jnana Yoga" from Vivekananda,
> or your website about Vedanta?
> These are the texts on Vedanta I have.
> 

The books you're reading are fine, especially those by Ramana
Maharshi are the best in the tradition that are easily accessible to
Westerners.

Ramana Maharshi had several devotees/disciples from the West,
including Paul Brunton, Arthur Osborne, S.S. Cohen, etc. all of whom
have written books about RM that you can find in most Hindu
bookstores. Some books are:

"Guru Ramana", By S.S.Cohen.

"Glimpses of the Life & Teaching of Sri Ramana Maharshi", By Frank
Humphreys.

"My Life and Quest", By Arthur Osborne.

"A search in secret India", by Paul Brunton.

[..]

> A main point is to converse a basic idea. Mostly we think that we
> ARE a 
> person who HAS consciousness. If this was the matter then
> consciousness is 
> nothing more but an instrument to deal with the world. This is an
> illusion 
> in the literally meaning of the word. It is the other way round: We
> ARE 
> consciousness in which APPEARS a personality in reflection with an
> appearing 
> world.

Yes, according to the advaita tradition, the Self is not something
that is conscious, but is consciousness itself.

-Kartik

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