[Advaita-l] diction of mantras

[mwadhwa at uwm.edu]

Namaste Amunathanji,

     Well I never intended to create any confusion, but it was an outburst and
though psychology, philosophy and spirituality go hand in hand, and philosophy
will hold your hand forever, but truly where philosophy and psychology (mind's
race) finally lead open up all new dimensions and spirituality is furthered by
these and spirituality will only begin after all these preliminaries get faded,
and I think you were talking somewhat on the same today with Ramji.

** advaita refers specifically to the philosophy taught
** by sha~Nkara and his teachers. superficially, it may
** resemble many other philosophies, but when we look at
** the subtle aspects of the philosophy, we are forced to
** look twice before classifying a particular philosophy
** as advaita.
**
       Regarding advaita, then shri shankaracharya is only a popular link in
this chain. Well needless to say, Advaita is eternal. Bhagavada Gita basis its
whole philosophy on advaita, though samkhya makes the initial base for it. And
Yoga Vasishtha or maharamaayanam is even before bhagvada gita. Yoga Vasishtha
will present the culmination of advaita philosophy that could not be found
anywhere. It may seem true that we can't include everything in this philosphy,
but I will add this that until and unless one is not able to accept all,
advaita can not be truly understood or lived. This is what I could understand.

       If light is acceptable then darkness is as much a part of advaita. If
life is part, then death is also a part, if high is a part, then so is low, if
male is then so is female, and these dual polarities are what advaita tries to
transcend through its philosophy after leading through all these thick and
thins and then tries to establish in a state of equanimity which is beyond
these. I won't call anything as this or that, I won't say that there is any
other philosophy, everything is degraded or upgraded aspect of advaita. I can
accept all and include every philosophy of the whole world into advaita, for
the purport of advaita is to make a path through all these to a state of
transcendence, where its true meaning percolates. The only purpose in saying
this is that the final goal and culmination of each and every philosophy is in
advaita. The goal of each soul however it might have lived in endless lives,
was to finally reach advaita, though in many other lives it might have lived
other philosophies that might not be called advaita. Eternity is the frame of
reference of advaita not some bound time frame or referential source for its
origin.

       The philosophy of eat, drink, marry and sleep as propounded by charwaks,
even that can be considered as much a part of advaita though degraded to
greatest extent, for in advaita if you attain a higher stand point only then
you can see why it is so.  People ask so often, if god is there then why are
there so many problems, but once one attains to higher levels of understanding
one starts understanding that all these questions that the mind was asking were
meaningless, though they might have held that meaning at that moment. An ocean
has to accept all waters from everywhere, be it from a little river, or a huge
river, or a river with all mud. I am just bent upon an opening that advaita is,
an ocean that advaita is, not a rigid structure with well defined walls, though
there are attempts to do so for without structure initially one can't stand for
one wants to hold on to something, still it is not so. I can try to bend the
truth in any way but truth is truth. Death of all Mental conditioning is the
final goal and there everything ends, no philosophy goes, no psychology. My
heart has its own ways so it speaks this way, it can't accept any bend in the
truth, though there is no way, only except realizing it, for words fall too
short-too short, and even distorted.

       This is my understanding. I welcome all the comments or suggestions but
my purport here is not at all to argue about anything, it is about establishing
a deeper insight into truth and we all can open ourselves. I hope all of you on
this advaita list will try to present your thoughts as boldly as you feel like.
There is a discussion, and an understanding, and no argumentation. My point here
to say again and again about argumentation is to bring to the light that, if
there comes any smack of argumentation then it tries to distort the truth and
raises ego which is as you all know but utter distortion of truth. We are
trying to see things as they are. I hope you will give your support through
your understanding.

Oh God! I have to study .... Amunathanji you are becoming a good friend of mine.
You are taking so much of my time and attention ;-) - Just kidding. It's a good
discussion. Thanks a lot to you Amunathanji.

Pranaams,
Manish