[Advaita-l] In praise of ISKCON?!

[V Subrahmanian]

On Sat, May 19, 2018 at 11:37 AM, Sujal Upadhyay <sujal.u at gmail.com> wrote:

> Pranams,
> Thank you for sharing info Shri Subbu ji,
> When any Swami ji of VaiShNava sampradAya is giving discourse in public,
> they generally tend to avoid controversy.
>

We often come across incidents where Vaishnava Sampradaya svamis or
scholars behaving in the most reprehensible ways:

They ask a screen to be put to cover a Shiva shrine where they are invited
to lecture.

They object to a picture of Shankaracharya in the premises where they have
come to deliver a talk.

I heard about these from persons who were present when these incidents took
place.

Unless they grow into maturity by mending their awful behaviour in public,
such bigoted elements will always pose a danger to civil society.

regards
subbu


> They also know that if we keep criticizing each other, already un-united
> Hindus will suffer more and other religions (Christianity and Islam) and
> leftists/Communists will take advantage of it.
>
> In foreign land, Hindus are in minority, so they have to be united.
>
> OM
>
> Sujal
>
>
> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 1:29 PM, V Subrahmanian <v.subrahmanian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> An Upanishadic Advaitic Etymology for ‘Nr-simha’
>> The NrsimhaTāpinyupaniṣat has given an etymology to the terms ‘Nr-simha’.
>> Shankara has brought out the purport of this etymology, which occurs as
>> part of the famous Nrsimha Mantra Rāja:
>> ॐ उग्रं वीरं महाविष्णुं ज्वलन्तं सर्वतोमुखम्।
>> नृसिंहं भीषणं भद्रं मृत्युमृत्युं नमाम्यहम् ॥
>>
>> An article that brings out all this and also several other aspects
>> important to Advaita, such as māyā-avidyā identity, is available here for
>> download:
>> http://www.mediafire.com/file/d1va1ahtczbdd19/The_etymology_
>> for_the_word_nrsimha_A
>>
>> regards
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 12:46 PM, V Subrahmanian <
>> v.subrahmanian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 12:20 PM, Sujal Upadhyay via Advaita-l <
>>> advaita-l at lists.advaita-vedanta.org> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Pranams Shri Bhaskar Prabhu ji,
>>>>
>>>> Not just ISKCONites but some Gaudiya-s too. I had discussion with him.
>>>> He
>>>> doesn't like ISKCON's way of preaching. He said, you advaitins
>>>> out-rightly
>>>> reject Krishna's form as illusion and mithyA. I asked him have you read
>>>> Sankara Bhashya? He said no. Then I quoted some sloka-s randomly from
>>>> Gita
>>>> Bhashya. Finally, I said if veda-s are an authority for Advaitin, if
>>>> Gita
>>>> is an essence of vedanta, then how can Krishna be Illusion. He could not
>>>> reply. Then I said, we accept even jivahood, but only in aJYAna (as
>>>> said in
>>>> chandogya upanishad Bhashya 6.5.xx or maybe 7.1.xx while explaining food
>>>> being divided into 3 parts - gross, medium and sutble). He then said, -
>>>> ok,
>>>> but you consider form of God as inferior. I simply replied, that is
>>>> different from 'out-rightly rejecting a form and calling it as an
>>>> illusion'. Also know that we do revere forms of God as they are
>>>> inseparable
>>>> from Brahman, however, we do not consider it as last step. Last step is
>>>> to
>>>> completely loose one's identity. Whatever exists is Brahman only. So
>>>> NirguNa, nikArAkAra Brahman is our ultimate goal. Even Yoga is
>>>> practised by
>>>> many advaitins, infact yoga and advaita used to go hand in hand. We see
>>>> it
>>>> in daily prANAyama practice that Brahmins do like anuloma viloma.
>>>> Bhakti is
>>>> the foundation of any spiritual practice. Without faith, everything is
>>>> mechanical.
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> At the very beginning of the bhashya (said to be of Shankara) for the
>>> Nrsimha Tapini Upanishad, it is said: saakaara brahman is taken up as the
>>> upaaya for realizing the niraakaara brahman.
>>>
>>> Thus, the formed-deity is a support for the aspirant to reach the
>>> formless Truth.
>>>
>>> regards
>>> subbu
>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>