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

[Shrisha Rao]

On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 9:53 PM, Ramesh Krishnamurthy
<rkmurthy at gmail.com> wrote:

> Dear Shrisha,
>
> It depends on where you draw the boundaries around "tradition".
> Perhaps you do not include people such as Swami Vivekananda (a Bengali
> Kayastha) or Swami Chinmayananda (a Nair) as traditionalists ?

Correct, actually; both were neo-Vedantins.  There may be numerous
such examples from recent times, but it would be a lot more persuasive
in determining the way tradition goes if it were the case that, say,
Vidyaranya was a क्षत्रिय or that Madhusudana Saraswati was a वैश्य.

It is clear scripturally that क्षत्रियs also have वानप्रस्थ, because
there are numerous stories of kings retiring to the forest.  However,
though for example the Bhagavata speaks of Jadabharata going to the
forest, it does not speak of him becoming a सन्नयासी; if it had, there
would be no need for this discussion.

> On the Visishtadvaita side, what would you have to say about the Ramanandi
> tradition in the Gangetic plain or the Swaminarayan sect in Gujarat?

It is said that the Visishtadvaita tradition was once very inclusive
and open to anyone, but now it is as insular as they come, so these
are not valid examples either.  Or at any rate though these relatively
recent groups might profess allegiance to Ramanuja, they definitely do
not set the standard for what is traditional in Ramanuja's own
unbroken line.

Regards,

Shrisha Rao