[Advaita-l] Fw: How shruti is antya pramANa in advaita, , vEdAnta??

[Sundar Rajan]

Dear Kris Manian,
   
  >>
  >There is one kind of person (very rare, of course), who immediately 
>understands, knows, realizes and is brahman, as soon as the Sruti is taught 
>to him. For this person, nothing else is necessary; no meditation, no pUjA, 
>no karma-yoga, no formal initiation into the rank of a monk (sannyAsin).

I did not realize this until now. I alway wondered how or what made Sri Ramana
to just leave everything and take Sanyasa on a fine day. May be this is the reason.
He might have come across "Tat tvam asi" or "Aham Brahmasmi" and realised immediately.
>>
   
  It is true that Sri Ramana left everything and went to his beloved Arunachala (Thiruvannamalai) when He was still a teenage boy. However he never took Sanyasa nor is there evidence of him coming across Mahavkayas that made him realise immediately.
   
  I had posted a message in the other Advaita group last year regarding this (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/advaitin/message/32870)
   
  Here is a quote from the book "The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana
Maharshi in His Own Words" describing the well known  'near death'
experience of Sri Ramana.

// Quote
It was about six weeks before I left Madurai for good that the
great change in my life took place. It was quite sudden. I was
sitting alone in a room on the first floor of my uncle's house.
I seldom had any sickness, and on that day there was nothing
wrong with my health, but a sudden violent fear of death
overtook me. There was nothing in my state of health to
account for it, and I did not try to account for it or to find
out whether there was any reason for the fear. I just felt `I am
going to die' and began thinking what to do about it. It did
not occur to me to consult a doctor, or my elders or friends;
   
   I felt that I had to solve the problem myself, there and then.
The shock of the fear of death drove my mind inwards and
I said to myself mentally, without actually framing the words:
`Now death has come; what does it mean? What is it that is
dying? The body dies.' And I at once dramatised the occurrence
of death. I lay with my limbs stretched out stiff as though
rigor mortis had set in, and imitated a corpse so as to give
greater reality to the enquiry. I held my breath and kept my
lips tightly closed so that no sound could escape, so that neither
the word `I' nor any other word could be uttered. `Well then,'
I said to myself, `this body is dead. It will be carried stiff to
the burning ground and there burnt and reduced to ashes.
But with the death of this body am I dead? Is the body I? It is
silent and inert but I feel the full force of my personality and
even the voice of the "I" within me, apart from it. So I am
Spirit transcending the body. The body dies but the Spirit
that transcends it cannot be touched by death. That means I
am the deathless Spirit.' All this was not dull thought; it flashed
through me vividly as living truth which I perceived directly,
almost without thought-process.
   
   `I' was something very real, the only real thing about my present state, and 
  all the conscious activity connected with my body was centred on that `I'. From
that moment onwards the `I' or Self, focused attention on
Itself by a powerful fascination. Fear of death had vanished
once and for all. 
  ABSORPTION IN THE SELF CONTINUED UNBROKEN FROM
THAT TIME ON.
//

  BTW, A techinal point.The scriptures and Shankara do point out that even if all the sadhana (Shravana, Manana, Nidhidhyasana) have been completed by a Sadhaka, Realization may not accrue if there are obstacles. Sri Ramana's may be more akin to Vamadeva's situation.
   
  Aitreya Upanishad mentions Sage Vamadeva. Vamadeva attained the
liberating realization while in his mother's womb. What sadhana
could he have performed there? What teaching of Mahavakya could occur there?
One can only conclude: Vamadeva had completed the entire sadhana in earlier lives
and despite there being nothing left to be done by him by way of
sadhana, the liberating sAkshAtkAra did not happen to him. 
  There were some obstructions. When the appropriate time
came, the realization occurred immediately.

  // quote
In regard to this, it is stated by a great seer: "While I was
confined in my mother's womb I knew well all the many births I had
taken. A hundred iron citadels confined me. But somehow by the
causeless mercy of the Supreme Lord, I again came in contact with my
spiritual master that I had previously had in another birth. And now
with the swiftness of a hawk, I flew forth" - Thus Rsi Vamadeva
declared even while lying in the womb of his mother.
// end quote

regards
  Sundar Rajan