[Advaita-l] Fw: Re: Questions on Mayavada.

[Sunil Bhattacharjya]

--- On Mon, 11/8/10, Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Questions on Mayavada.
To: "Siva Senani Nori" <sivasenani at yahoo.com>
Date: Monday, November 8, 2010, 8:43 PM

Dear Shri Shivasenani,

During the last few days there were several Diwali get-togethers and visits to and from friends and relatives. Because of that I was not prompt in reply and that aroused suspicion as if I was trying to run away. Far from m it. I do enjoy free and frank discussions. However when a topic heats up there should not be any casual reply at all and you must be knowing that every serious reply does take considerable time..

We acquire knowledge according to our desire and according to the opportunities and the latter, I think, depends  to a great extent on the grace of God. SWo nobody shoulkd claim superiority in knowledge. Yet the fact reamains that we have to learn from others. 

Take the case of Yoga. Many scholars believe that Yoga is beneath Vedanta but having read the Yoga Upanishads and also having seen reference to
 the indispensability of Yoga in several Upanishads I do not consider Yoga as beneath Vedanta. Patanjali began with the definition of Yoga as "Chittavrittinirodha" and that definition itself appears in the beginning of the "Yogachara" Upanishad. Just because we read the Yoga sutras compiled by Patanjali, who is considered by many to be  a lesser mortal than the Vedic rishis (mind that Patanjali was a compiler of the yoga sutras and not the inventor of Yoga), should we forget the status and the useful role of the Yoga? Lord Krishna himself said that he revelaed yoga to Hiranyagarbha and is it then lower than any other shruti revelations. When I do my homework and be pretty convinced about a topic then I do present my views a bit forcefully. However I do not claim to know each and every topic thoroughly as one should  and I do not become active in many topics such as in  "Nyaya" as I have not concentrated much on those areas and we have
 scholars like Sadanandaji, with great knowledge in that area. 

I envy you for doing MA in Sanskrit. I had Sanskrit in school and I went to the science stream in college and had to leave Sanskrit.  My father's elder brother insisted on my doing MA in Sanskrit but I did not agree as my own elder brother went to IIT Kharagpur and having seen that I was more inclined towards the science stream. I think younger brothers like to follow the elder brothers. About three years ago I went to Bhadravati in Karnataka during the course of my consultancy and I could visit a village on the outskirts of Shimoga, where everybody, including the Children, talk in Sanskrit. I talked in faltering Sanskrit and was ashamed to see young children talking in Sanskrit fluently. I was invited to stay in that village for some days in their guest-house but I could not do so as I had my next visit to Hubli already  planned and was not in a position to change that
 appointment. Wish you all the best in your studies.

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Mon, 11/8/10, Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Questions on Mayavada.
To: "Sunil Bhattacharjya" <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
Cc: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Monday, November 8, 2010, 6:24 PM

Dear Sri Bhattacharjya
Thank you for giving an explanation of Dharmakaya. I see that a discussion has already ensued focussing on the meaning of the term, and what
 it does not mean, which is beneficial to all list members, than focussing on who has read what or not.
I do not claim to be a great scholar; rather I am a studen - literlly! I have just enrolled in a full-time two-year course leading to MA in Sanskrit in Osmania University and get to read pUrvamImAmsA, sANkhyakArikas etc. in the course. Since I have not read the entire prasthAnatraya (of BhagatvatpAda, I mean - ours is a family of advaita vedAntins) to my satisfaction, I do not spend time reading other works on philosophy. So I do not know anything about Buddhism except what was in the
 social studies text books so many years back. My only submission is that, to the extent possible and generally speaking, I do not post if I have no business posting - that is if I do not understand the matter I am posting about or if I have nothing substantially or sufficiently (in my view) new (in the context of the discussion, not in the context of knowledge as such) to add.
RegardsN. Siva Senani
From: Sunil Bhattacharjya <sunil_bhattacharjya at yahoo.com>
To: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>; A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Sent: Mon, November 8, 2010 1:07:16 PM
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Questions on Mayavada.


Dear Sivasenaniji,

I am happy to know now that you are a great scholar and henceforth I shall not contest your views. You found me opinionated and expressed it and I also thought you to be opinionated and did not express it so far. That is a big difference between you and me. Why do you presume that I do not want to answer Srikantaji's request. You have conveniently forgotten that It was I who asked him about the concept of Kaya in Mahayana Buddhism. As you are a great scholar kindly tell me was there any need  for Srikantaji to bring in Jainism into the  discussion on Mahayana Buddhism? You might have noticed that  earlir also he  brought
 Hinayana Buddhism into the discussions on Mahayana Buddhism. That is why  I showed my resentment. Let him show his scholarship in the area under discussion. Adi Sankaracharya showed his
 scjholarship and went to Mandana Mishra and defeated him. As the need arose he even did the parakayapravesh but did not give up arguing till he won. That tradition is from Adi Sankaracharya's time. I only objected to Srikrishnaji's digressing from the discussions. If I have shown my scholarship to you don't you think you too should have your scholarship to me and defeated me rather than fretting and venting your grievances later on.

According to my understanding the Mahayana Buddhism believes in three Kayas. One of them refers to the physical manifestation or the physical body (the Nirmanakaya), the second refers to the sense body (Sambhoga-kaya) and the third refers to the body which represents the ultimate truth or the Buddha-awareness, when the Shunyata is achieved. The last body is therefore the truth-body (Dharma-kaya) or  or the Buddha-mind or the Buddha-awareness (Bodha-kaya). When Shunyata is achieved there is only the
 Buddha-awareness or Prajna. In Hinduism Prajna is Brahman. "Prajnanam Brahma". Lord Buddha did not use the word Brahma. You must be knowing that Lord Krishna used the word Brahma-Nirvana whereas Lord Buddha used the word Nirvana. One European scholar went to the exient of telling that Lord krishna's Brahmanirvana uses the wrod "Nirvana" first used by Lord Buddha. I presume you know all this that Lord krishna preceded Lord Buddja by more than a millennium. If you think that I am wrong kindly do me the favour of correcting me. Please  do not feel that I shall take umbrage at it . I am the last person to fret.

 I only wonder that if you thought that  I do not know anything about Buddhism and you also thought that I am unable to give reply to Srikantaji then I why did not you yourself give the answer to Srikantaji ?

Regards,

Sunil K. Bhattacharjya

--- On Sun, 11/7/10, Siva Senani Nori
 <sivasenani at yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Siva Senani Nori <sivasenani at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] Questions on Mayavada.
To: "A discussion group for Advaita Vedanta" <advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org>
Date: Sunday, November 7, 2010, 7:34 PM

I want to express my resentment of Mr. Sunil Bhattacharjya's presumptive and 
opinionated statements where he thinks some other list member has not studied / 
understood this or that; or that for some other scholar joining the list is 
beneath his scholarship; or constantly asking for proof, without offering it 
himself or without substantiating his explanations. For the strong opinions he 
expresses abuot others knowledge and understanding there is amazingly little 
scholarly input from him in at least backing
 up such
 statements. Going by past 
form, I would expect him to ignore the specific request of Mr. Srikanta to 
explain Dharmakaya, but such is unbecoming of somebody who threw the challenge 
that Mr. Srikanta does not understand "Dharmakaya". 


Time, he put up or shut up.

There is a little history behind it. Earlier he (Mr. Bhattacharjya) accused me 
of not reading Abhinava Gupta's commentary on the Bhagavat Gita. When I followed 
up with a detailed explanation there was total silence. The irony is that Mr. 
Srikanta himself indulges in such presumptive statements; he had earlier hinted 
that I did not read Mandukya Upanishad, and when I posted back saying that I 
indeed did and that I did post with reference to some obscure aspects, 
there was silence. Neither of them so much as ackowledged the fact or bothered 
to say that the slur against me was
 incorrect.

I hope we will see less of such posts in this forum.

N. Siva Senani


________________________________
From: srikanta <srikanta at nie.ac.in>
To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
Sent: Sun, November 7, 2010 12:08:31 PM
Subject: [Advaita-l] Questions on Mayavada.

Dear sunil Bhattacharji,
While explaining the description of Dharmakaya,I have followed the books
on Buddhism.Dharmakaya is the entity encompassing Physical,mental and the
intellectual faculties,with which a being function,which is called a
"Dharma"in Buddhist parlance.Dharma in short(it is not charity as we
ordinarily use)any being or Atma which funtion in the world for its
sustenance and safety is denoted by
 "Dharmakaya".
If it is not, why don't you explain?
                                                        N.Srikanta.







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