[Advaita-l] (Advaita) Bhakti vs. Jnana

[Ramesh Krishnamurthy]

Dear Sri Rajaram,

I clearly said "If Sri Krishna really meant that...", implying that he
really did not mean so. To be more precise, I was indicating that such
statements are contextual.

When I talked about "getting the basics right" I meant it as a well-meaning
suggestion to you given the many questions you have put to the list of late.
No offence meant :-)

As far as quoting shaastra-s is concerned, I would just like to mention one
thing. One cannot learn something like vedAnta by looking at verses
piecemeal. To understand each verse one must have an understanding of the
full picture, and to understand the full picture one has to understand
individual verses. So it is a bit circular. One way to break this
circularity is to study under a teacher who can give you the big picture
first, build up your concepts and then take you step by step. Even if one
does not have access to a teacher, one can start by first understanding key
concepts like avidyA and thereafter the role of j~nAna and the mahAvAkya-s.

If you are influenced by Gaudiya-s then you have a lot of unlearning to do,
not merely in matters of philosophy but *even in terms of how to look at
shaastra-s*. In fact, the only reason why I even made that suggestion is
because you had mentioned earlier that you were influenced by the Gaudiya-s.


My perception was that in spite of the Gaudiya influence you wanted to learn
Advaita Vedanta. The choice is of course yours. Once again, no offence
meant.