[Advaita-l] Re: Pa~nchapAdikAchArya

[jagannathan mahadevan]

On 10/1/06, Abhishek RK <rkabhi at gmail.com> wrote:
> Namaste,
> Please go through the link once again. We cannot rely on fallacious
> arguments *even* if we have studied for however long a time.
>
> Regards,
> Abhishek


I do not disagree with you that we cannot rely on fallacious
arguments. However what I want to point out is that the website does
not establish fallacy (of appeal to age old which they have termed as
tradition).

Anyway, leaving the website alone, it all depends on what you look at
as tradition. I think that we are talking about the advaitic thought
passed on from teacher to student. As long as we refer to this as
tradition there is really no fallacy in appealing to it. Also there
can be no difficulty in seeing that the advaita tradition is in fact
appealing. How many traditions do we have in which the teacher
proposes to student that you are of the nature of brahman which is one
without a second principle?

I think about the advaita tradition as the generic formula of a
pharmaceutical product. Many brand name companies can make the same
medicine but the formula and the properties are still the same. There
may be cursory differences between the medicines themselves like color
etc. But the essence is same. Without extending the example too much,
it is easy to realise that there can be more than one location
continuing the same tradition.  From this point of view, I doubt that
a teaching tradition of advaita vedanta can be really 'misled' over a
period of many years. At worst the tradition can die but only locally.

( I am having difficulty in translating "tradition" to the correct
sanskrit word - is it parampara or sampradaya?)

sincerely,
Jagan.