[Advaita-l] waking, dreaming, sleeping, as mutually supportive

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

Kathirasan-ji,

It is not always helpful to think of the Hindu traditions in terms of
"schools". Things are much more interlinked. Matsyendranatha's line
was instrumental in combining mantra-shaastra with yoga-shaastra and
even rasayana. This combination has been carried forward by diverse
groups including Bauddha-s, the Shaiva-s of Abhinavagupta's line,
assorted groups of natha-s and others.

Swami Dayananda Saraswati (of Arsha Vidya) in his talks on the
Yogasutra-s fully integrates the same into Vedanta, to the extent of
saying that what Patanjali taught was no different from Vedanta. He
does not agree with conventional scholarship that links Patanjali with
Samkhya.

Nisargadatta Maharaj was an initiate into one of the Natha lines and
what he taught was pretty much pure Advaita-Vedanta, almost Ramana
style shorn of upAya-s such as the yoga-shaastra . The followers of
the Udasin sampradaya, one of the influential groups in Northern
India, are not dashanami-s but essentially follow Advaita. One of
their mahatma-s, one Swami Nischaldas, wrote the Vicharasagar (in
Hindi) that was highly recommended not only by Ramana Maharshi but
also by Sri Abhinava Vidyatirtha Mahaswaminah.

At least I don't see anything "mutually exclusive" between Shankara
and Matsyendranatha.

Ramesh

2009/10/13 Kathirasan K <brahmasatyam at gmail.com>:
> Namaste
>
> Swamiji is an example of a Vedantin who has fused the practices of Hatha
> Yoga which is part of the Shaiva Natha Sampradaya into Vedanta. It is very
> interesting to note how Vedanta and Tantra have merged in spite of its
> teachings being mutually exclusive during the times of Shankara and
> Matsyendranatha (the principal teacher of the Hatha Yoga School).
>
> Kathirasan
>