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

[Sujal Upadhyay]

praNAMs,

An interesting info on this page.

http://the-wanderling.com/bharati.html

Some excerpts

Need to confirm sources.

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Bharati Krishna Tirtha (also sometimes Bharati Krisna Tirtha) was the
Sankaracharya (Pontiff) of the Govardhan Math, Puri, from 1925 to 1960 AD.
He is most noted for, first, as being the inventor of and author of Vedic
Mathematics, a highly controversial set of strategies for mental
calculation. Secondly, that he revealed the archives of the Puri Jagannath
Temple contain within their ancient records a set of texts purporting Jesus
of Nazareth visited India during his so-called 'lost years of the Bible.'

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In 1959, Sri Daya Mata had traveled to India to meet and talk with people
of note related to the Fellowship as well as visit some of the hallowed and
sacred places from which the Fellowship sprang. During her travels she
stopped to see Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha who had visited the
Self-Realization Center in California the year before. As reported in the
article titled "Remembering Paramahansa Yogananda," appearing in
Self-Realization Magazine, (Winter, 1992, p.16) the following transpired:


    "In 1959 I discussed this (Jesus being in India during his so-called
'missing years' of the Bible) with one of India's great spiritual leaders,
His Holiness Sri Bharati Krishna Tirtha, the Shankaracharya of Puri. I told
him that Guruji (Paramahansa Yogananda) had often said to us that Christ
spent some of his life in India, in association with her (i.e., India's)
illumined sages."


His Holiness replied:


    "That is true. I have studied ancient records in the Puri Jagannath
Temple archives confirming these facts. He was known as 'Isha,' and during
part of his time in India he stayed in the Jagannath Temple. When he
returned to his part of the world, he expounded the teachings that are
known today as Christianity."


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On Ramana Maharshi

As time went on the self-realized saint of Arunachala became known as the
Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi. In 1919 Bharati Krishna Tirtha, a masterful
and avid scholar of The Texts, was initiated into the holy order of
Sannyasa. Ramana, considered one of India's greatest saints and a holy man
practically without equal, was himself NOT formally initiated into
Sannyasa. He was Awakened to the Absolute at age 17 basically out of
nowhere with little or no formal religious background, and definitely
without a personal guru. Underlining that status, it should be noted, when
Bharati Krishna Tirtha visited the ashram of Sri Ramana he sat on the floor
like everyone else, even though Ramana had arranged for a raised seat for
him to sit.

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I understand that there are problems if non-traditional saints or non-vedic
deities are incorporated into traditional Hindu Fold.

​OM​