to Shane Keher

[Guest guest]

Namaste Shane,

 

I looked at my original response to you and it seemed like an

outright diatribe against Vedantists; instead of writing on Amma's

statements on self-enquiry, I merely enumerated my opinions, so I

wish to sincerely apologize for this.

 

In defense of Vedantists, the late Sri Swami Chinmayananda was a true

Vedantist as was his Guru Tapovan Maharaj; I have Swamiji's

commentary on a Sowmya Kasi Stotram composed by his guru and this

amply bears him out to be a bhakta par excellance.

 

I have met many Amma devotees who are serious practitioners of

Ramana's self enquiry method and so am sure that Amma would have

spoken on this; hopefully someone else on this list may contribute

something.

 

But to Vedantists or non-Vedantists to paraphrase a comment someone

made to me (this was when he was pointing out the local Gurus,

commune leaders, self-styled yogis and God-men coming to pay their

respects to Amma,in an Amma program in NY city), "everyone knows when

they see the real deal".

 

-yogaman

 

 

Ammachi, "shanekeher" <rehek@h...> wrote:

> I love Amma. The highlight of my year every since 1996 has been her

> visits to Australia. I'm also oriented to Advaita and self inquiry

[Guest guest]

Here is an extract from The Final Leap found on page 250 in the book

>From Amma's Heart by Swami Amritaswarupananda.

 

Questioner: Is there a point in a seeker's life when he or she needs

to simply wait?

 

Amma: Yes. After performing spiritual practices for a long time,

which is after putting forth all necessary effort, there will come a

point when the sadhak (spiritual seeker) has to stop all sadhana

(spiritual practices) and wait patiently for realization to happen.

 

This is as Vedantic as it can get. My opinions follow below:

 

I suspect that when seekers reach the stage mentioned above, they

arrive at the so-called Vedantic masters such as Ramana Maharshi,

Nisargadatta Maharaj, Ramesh Balsekar, and others. How they reach

this stage is unpredictable. I know of someone who attained this

stage through alcohol and drugs. He was a drug addict and alcoholic

for 19 years before he found his guru Ramesh Balsekar. Eventually he

asked Balsekar - All these other people have been doing sadhana and

other stuff while I was at a bar getting drunk out of my wits. How

come realization happened to me and not to them? Balsekar replied

that his sadhana was to drink and drug his ego into submission, so

that surrender could happen.

 

Of course this is not an endorsement of drinking as a means of

attaining liberation. But there is a way of expressing it that says

that Realization is the absence of the one that can attain

Realization. In that sense, the realized sage is not one that has

something more than the "unrealized" masses, but rather has something

less. How does it all fit with the traditional yoga paths?

 

Bhakti Yoga - The aspirant worships with the notion that he is

separate from the Guru or God who he worships, and eventually the

fake separation vanishes. Then it is seen that All There is, is

Consciousness, and that there is Bhakti (Devotion), but no Bhakta

(devotional person).

 

Karma Yoga - The aspirant performs actions with the notion that he is

the doer of his actions, and eventually the fake idea that there is

an independent "he" doing the actions vanishes. Then it is seen that

All There is, is Consciousness, and that that there is Karma (action)

but no karma yogi (person who performs actions).

 

Jnana Yoga - The aspirant start with the inquiry "What is this I?",

and eventually the fake notion that there is an independent

separate "I" is perceived as fake. Then it is seen that All There

is, is Consciousness, and that there is Jnana (Wisdom), but no Jnani

(Wise person).

 

 

Regards