cbrahma

Where did I claim to be anything? On the one hand I am accused of endless argumentation and on the other of not thinking. I am able to argue effectively because I debate 1) Logically (which requires thinking) 2) with appeal to authority (which requires knowledge) And why is this about me? What is your excuse?

No I don't know what that is. But you are obviously a jnani philosophical speculator and to some extent so am I. Prabhupada was involved in serious debating, not because he liked debating, but to strike away the mental tricks that blocked the truth and people can get really stubborn in their attachments to illusory ideas. The problem is where does debating stop and service begin. On the one hand there are those who distinguish themselves by their sadhana, following all the rules down to every detail. On the other hand there are those who are more interested in knowledge. I call attention to the following letter by somebody I consider to be a first rate bhakta.

Well it's a kind of mercy I suppose.

I don't fight with everyone. I ignore a lot of people. Gimme a break parroting that cheap argument. Besides it is irrelevant to the discussion. I'm hardly religious and nobody considers me a fanatic. It's just that few people, especially religious ones know how to debate logically and validly so it takes a while to make the point.

I thought you were calling it a night.

Are you suffering from a serious illness? (not sarcastic).

SP didn't need popularity, to steal Sankara's thunder. He was just noting that Sankara wasn't a true impersonalist.

This is a discussion forum about spiritual topics. If somebody makes a philosophical point like adwaita is attractive, I will debate it since it is misleading and fallacious. If you're not about the truth how can you be spiritual? To trivialize the whole thing as being argumentative is a cheap evasion in my opinion. You are searching obviously, which is the speculative path - the jnana yoga. But honestly I don't know where you're coming from. But then it doesn't really matter.

It's 4:00 am here.

No I'm asking where you got these instructions. I don't think it needs faith so much as intelligent realization. A dead body without spirit is just a lump of matter. No personality. Clearly whatever constitued that personality was not identical with that lump of matter. I'm somewhat amazed that you melt into agreement with DW who uses Sankara to prove adwaita is 'flexible' (whatever that means). According to Prabhupada, and yes I will quote him since he is the most reliable source, Sankaracarya is a 'covered' personalist since he accepts that Krsna is bhagavan.

You have personal mis-identified with embodied. Our individuality is not reduceable to bodily existence.

How can there be love without persons?

The many ways the I can identify itself shows that it exists seperately from them but not that it is impersonal. 'Without bodily identification' does not equal impersonal.

Yes I already am practicing Christianity. It isn't simple in the sense of easy , but it isn't complicated with dozens and dozens of little rules that make every day life impossibly stressful. That's what the Old Testament did and the Pharisees were the perfect examples of that fussy rule-following. They plotted to kill Jesus precisely because He understood the Spirit rather than the letter of the law. It would be interesting to take a poll as to how many members of this forum actually prepare prasadam according to all the rules stated in the krsna post, if they do at all. It takes up so much time, that a working person wouldn't have time for anything else.

The Devil is in the details.

These complications conditions and exceptions are not just impractical they portray God as a small-minded petty policeman who's offended by trivia

I'm hardly part of a propaganda machine. ISKCON has very much embraced the clerical churchianity model to which you of monk/congregation. That is the cause of their failure. Not the so-called propaganda machine.

Where have I said to stop a program? And what program are you talking about? Monasteries. ISKCON is not a Church and Vaisnavism is not a religion.

You are speculating outrageously. You just registered with this forum and you are already pontificating about my mind and soul. How presumptous. If you knew what my discussions consisted of you wouldn't be able to back that up. If I wanted to argue with everybody I wouldn't agree with anybody, and that is simply a falsehood. If it makes you feel better, more justified, more advanced to dismiss everything I say with this gross speculation rather than addressing my statements on their own merits, so much the better. I have at least six people on ignore precisely because I don't want to argue pointlessly, especially with these no-brainer outrageous personal diatribes of the kind you are launching to justify any argument you put forth. BTW I'm not the least bit agitated. The people I'm disagreeing with proper support I might add are the ones getting agitated. And it's really twisted to claim that quoting Prabhupada as such to make a logical philosophical point is apharada.LOL. You think Theist, the one who crafted this little gem of an 'ad hominem' is a fully practicing devotee? Ask him.

Ironically you brought it up. I don't waste my time arguing over semantics of Vedic texts and with people who persist in flaming. So my endless argumentation has definite and rational limits. My disagreements are topic-specific. I would not put anybody on ignore if I just wanted to argue. It occurs to me that it was a subject I brought up long ago when this forum was full of pedantic Vedic text quibblers. So they argued that my objecting to their arguing was arguing and round and round it went. I guess you're falling in with the same argument.

I don't need to argue in general. That's an ad hominem you can't prove. You seem to argue with everything with which you disagree as does everybody else.

Our forgetting does not cancel out our core personality - our existence. Every time we sleep we would cease to exist.

Absolute monism is tantamount to atheism.