[Advaita-l] Ramana Maharshi - Advaitin or Neo Advaitin?

[Praveen R. Bhat]

Namaste Swamiji,

On Sun, Sep 25, 2016 at 8:14 AM, श्रीमल्ललितालालितः via Advaita-l <
advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:

>
> Why ramaNa stands near sA~Nkhya?
> Because, he never accepted that his knowledge was product of mahAvAkya.
>

Ramana Maharshi may not have accepted it in so many words but see what he
says in Talks 647 (CAPS emphasis is mine please):
Each one knows the Self but is yet ignorant. The person is enabled to
realize *ONLY* after hearing the Mahavakyas.  Hence the Upanishadic text is
the eternal Truth to which *EVERYONE* who has realized owes his
experience.  After hearing the Self to be the Brahman the person finds the
true import of the Self and reverts to it whenever he is diverted from it.
Here is the *WHOLE PROCESS* of Realization.

It is also not a case similar to that of vAmadeva, where it was because of
> unknown reasons.
> He appears to suggest that only vichAra which starts from 'who am I' and
> leads to dRg-dRshya-viveka, is his sAdhana.
>

I don't think Ramana Maharshi said that that was his sAdhana. He said that
it was spontaneous as a child and he just analyzed this experience. So it
is more closer to unknown first, even before vichAra.


> However, if he said that he accepts shruti as pramANa, and knows that he is
> one with brahma, or is one alone; then I could have thought that he was
> aupaniShadapuruShavettA.
>

Other than Talks 647 quoted above, Ramana Maharshi says in Upadeshasaram in
his own words: ईशजीवयोर्वेषधीभिदा । सत्स्वभावतो वस्तु केवलम् ॥ २४॥

Swamiji, I can only hope that you would change your opinion.

gurupAdukAbhyAm,
--Praveen R. Bhat
/* Through what should one know That owing to which all this is known!
[Br.Up. 4.5.15] */