[Advaita-l] Advaiti Response to this report?

[Rajaram Venkataramani]

 That said, I am now going to put on my list moderator hat. On Tuesday,
> Jan 17, this thread ends. I am giving you fair notice instead of declaring
> it
> closed right now. Do not continue this thread after that time. I request
> other
> list members who may have anything to add, to do so within the next day.
> Vidyasankar
>
>
Rajaram: The arguments by Sri Venkatesh may lack both understanding of
Advaita and strong arguments by the other schools of thought against
advaitam. However, I do not think the thread should be closed because one
has to start enquiry somewhere and discuss to arrive at the conclusions of
the sastras. Even great philosophers such as Ramanuja, Desika, Madhwa,
Baladev etc. have considered themselves to have better understanding of
sastras than Gaudapada, Sankara etc. and as a result arrived at relative
truths as opposed to absolute truth of advaitam. When that is the case, the
moderator has to less strict in modern times regarding the mistakes by
others who are not stalwarts.  One will eventually come to advaitic
conclusion either in this world or the others. The opportunity to hear the
advaitic conclusion itself will give the required daivi sampat.

The root cause of the problem is that we dont have active teaching to
children due to modern pressures for secular education and work. I
appreciate Sri Venkatesh for enquiring in to Advaita and wish him success
is arriving at the advaitic conclusion.

Sri Venkatesh, if pot is real, then "potness" has to be real. But there is
no "potness" in clay. Even when pot appears to exist now, it is always
known to be clay on analysis. So with regard to pot, clay is the absolute
reality. We cannot have two objects pot and clay existing at the same time
and space. So, pot cannot be said to exist though it appears to because
clay alone exists (mrtyketeva satyam). With regard to all objects, sastras
say that Brahman is the absolute reality being the substratum. The
appearance of objects (including cognizer) is due to inexplicable Maya.
Just new names and forms are super-imposed on clay though it is changeless
in its original nature as clay, new names and forms are super-imposed on
Brahman. Even those who say that object are real can only say that names
and forms are real, which goes against sastras that distinguish objects
from their names and forms. Also, these names and forms also exist in
Ishwara, who is beyond names and forms, as non-different from Him. So, they
cannot also said to have absolute reality.