[Advaita-l] (Alleged) Internal Inconsistencies in the Advaita Tradition

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

> To: advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org
> From: bhaskar.yr at in.abb.com
> Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2011 12:52:37 +0530
> Subject: Re: [Advaita-l] (Alleged) Internal Inconsistencies in the Advaita Tradition
> 
> the so-called inconsistency is indeed only an allegation.
> 
> sAshtAnga praNAms Sri Vidya prabhuji
> Hare Krishna
> 
> Kindly pardon me if I said anything wrong here. IMHO, the 'existing' 
> inconsistency in advaitic works is more than a mere allegation from 
> outsiders. The 'history' of advaita vedAnta says that 'vyAkhyAnakAra-s' 
> within the tradition have tried to push their theory hard & in that 

Let us take a look at this very list as a model for the history that you 
highlight here. Certainly, each one of us has his or her own views on
specific issues and we certainly 'attack' one another vigorously in the
course of defending our views. That doesn't take away from the fact
that we are all committed to studying advaita vedAnta with reverence.

Similarly with the various vyAkhyAnakAra-s over time. For that matter,
which tradition is uniformly monolithic? Even in the highly organized
Roman Catholic Church, you have Dominicans and Fransciscans and
Jesuits and others, each with a variant flavor. Yes, there is the official
dogma handed down by that church, but there are many theologians
with their variant views. To me, and I daresay to many others, it is the
absence of officially handed down dogma in our tradition that actually
keeps it alive and vibrant. We have traditional lineages of gurus, but 
none of these lineages has built itself into an official "Church" that 
tells you what to think and believe. It forces each one of us to actually
think for ourselves rather than abrogate that responsibility to some
external organization.
 
Regards,
Vidyasankar