Raman Maharshi (was Re: RES: [Advaita-l] New member introduction:AsadMustafa Rizvi)

[sriram]

ramana is a true master. he analysed the works and the world from the
formless to the formed from the stand point of Ego.
he wanted the mind to be annulled by the simple question"who Am I?"
that his words and work have been seen by scholars as an embodiment of
advaita is purely coincidental...
The maharishi's disciples used to take works of other saints for
interpretation and like a true master ever selfless Ramana used to expound
clearing their doubts on certain aspects. before we conclude that he was a
mere translator or a pure crystal who has shed no instrinsic color i would
caution you to merely read his upedesa saram and at best we can say that his
was a form of Jnana Marga to self realisation. One can see shades of advaita
in Ramana but to say that Ramana espoused advaita is to reduce the form to a
shadow!
----- Original Message -----
From: Ramakrishnan Balasubramanian <rama.balasubramanian at gmail.com>
To: A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta
<advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2007 5:51 PM
Subject: Raman Maharshi (was Re: RES: [Advaita-l] New member
introduction:AsadMustafa Rizvi)


> I must say I disagree with calling RM a sphatika mani. It seems like
> saying that RM had no philosophical ideas of his own. The
> relation/common points that advaita (forget about RM) has with systems
> such as mystical Christian traditions, sufism, etc, had already been
> pointed out by Aldous Huxley, Schrodinger, etc., who had no idea of
> RM. At least Schrodinger did not.
>
> The best way to get an idea of what RM said is to read his works. He
> was not a Sanskrit scholar, but knew enough Sanskrit to compose some
> poetry. The bulk of his philosophical works are in Tamil verse and
> poetry. Probably about half of them are translations of Shankaras
> works such as VivekachUDAmaNI, etc. But the rest will show he was
> nothing other than a classical advaitin. Examing shankara from his
> works alone (we have no access to conversations), and comparing that
> with some recorded dialogs of RM, is not an apples to apples
> comparison.
>
> Rama
>
> On 1/24/07, Vidyasankar Sundaresan <svidyasankar at hotmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > There is an interesting metaphor used by advaita vedAnta masters, which
is
> > very appropriate in the context of seeing someone like Ramana Maharishi
as a
> > Sufi sage. A sphaTika mani (transparent crystal) has no color
intrinsically.
> > However, when a colored flower or gemstone is viewed through the
crystal, it
> > appears as if the color belongs to the crystal too.
> >
> > Ramana Maharishi did not call himself a Maharishi, and taught solely
from
> > his own experience. In the context of the society around him, scholars
saw
> > remarkable agreement of his sayings with the advaita vedAnta tradition.
Sri
> > Rizvi sees agreement between Ramana and Sufi masters like Rumi.
> >
> > Ramana is like the sphaTika; we each of us impart to him the color that
we
> > see due to our own saMskAras! But this also points to another fact - in
many
> > ways, Sufi teachings are remarkably close to vedAnta, albeit in the
context
> > of Islam.
> >
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