[Advaita-l] Re: Swami Sachchidanandendra Sarasvati

[Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian]

On 9/28/06, Annapureddy Siddhartha Reddy <annapureddy at gmail.com> wrote:
> praNAm.h shrI Rama,
>
> As you rightly pointed out, ultimately it's the writings of the svAmijis
> that matter, and not their status as incarnations etc. Thus, statements of

Dear Siddhartha,

I did NOT point out that it's ultimately the writings which matter.
Quite the opposite, actually. All I said was that we can certainly
independently examine the writings of SSS (apart from his supposed
reincarnation).

My point remains: shankara insists on approaching a brahmavit
personally. If we had blind men for 1200 years, who did SSS approach?
More on this in another mail.

> I have been reading the method of the vEdAnta (by Alston), and the point
> svAmi sachchidAnandEndra sarasvati seems to be making is that many of the
> advaitins have been off in the "right interpretation" of the upaniShats, and
> not necessarily in the conclusions they draw.

Again see my other mail on this. So is your contention that the "blind
men" achieved self-realization anyway? In that case, we could as well
accept the pa~ncapaadikaa, no? It is clear (to me) that SSS's
contention is that brahma-j~naana CANNOT be attained by understanding
vedaanta through texts like pa~ncadashii et. al, and approaching
teachers in that tradition because they are all "blind" men. Best not
to indulge in revisionistic versions of SSS's claims.

Rama