Advaita Vedanta

[Guest guest]

Advaita Vedanta

Advaita Vedanta was founded by Shankaracharya, one of the most important philosophers in India, and possibly in the world, who is said to have lived during the 8th century AD.

 

Advaita (non-dualistic) Vedanta expounds that our real self (Atman in Sanskrit) and the Universal, Transcendental Self (Brahman in Sanskrit) is one and the same. There can be no more simplistic philosophical model of the world than this absolute "monism".

 

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i can not remember but is this Shankaracharya that is teaching impersonalism and that krishna requests to teach to the demons?

 

also does anyone have any intel about yoga Nidra? as it is one of the consepts in this school of thought.

i have tried yoga nidra and enjoyed it greatly as it is a simple form of meditation. without going into depts with it. listen to a cd and follow the instuctions and your get major relaxation.

 

[Guest guest]

Krishna does speak of the formless Bramhan. The Nirguna etc. in bagawath githa.

 

Krishna sppeals for service and Karama Samnyasa. Krishna appeals to Arjuna for action, very much on similar lines as Krishna does himself by example.

 

Krishna's selfless service was his own bakthi to the supreme formless self.

 

Let's also stop fooling ourselves that Arjuna managed to please Krishna that Arjuna was given the blessing of Krihsna's company/guidance/assurances. In other words it's Krishna good nature that he's pleased by other's devotion to the spiritual self and takes to service.

 

Krishna recognizes the confusion in Arjuna (& his quest for truth) and places that state at a far higher level that egoistic greed of duryodhana.

 

In advaithic school egoism means any kind of seperation, or boundary. Absolutely no differentiatedness is zero ego state. Even the seperation between God and the devotee is far from zero ego-state if there is recognition of seperation. There is no transaction at all between god & a devotee. As we course into a zero ego state we see the god inside of us (more Viveka the better for the course)

 

Shankaracharya speak of True nature of such a person who lives/acts/interacts focusing on the supreme spiritual self. Krishna is ones own true nature. It's the new evolving character of the person post the inner spiritual enlightenment. It's already there with everyone. It's currently neglected like clear water covered by moss.

[imported_yasodanandana 0]

Let's also stop fooling ourselves that Arjuna managed to please Krishna that Arjuna was given the blessing of Krihsna's company/guidance/assurances.

••that's what is written in the Gita...

 

In other words it's Krishna good nature that he's pleased by other's devotion to the spiritual self and takes to service.

••Krsna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and He's pleased when someone devotes his life to Him. He's the "spiritual super self" the "Param-Atma"

 

Krishna recognizes the confusion in Arjuna

••being Arjuna an eternally liberated soul (he is intimate friend of the Supreme Lord Sri Krsna, it is impossible that he's in maya) he's acting as confused, but he's not

 

Even the seperation between God and the devotee is far from zero ego-state if there is recognition of seperation.

••it is our false ideintification with the body that is to leave, not the individuality. We are eternal spiritual personalities, we have to discover our eternal nature of Krsna's Lovers. Spiritual reality is simultaneous union and separation:

union because god is everything, separation because everything means that there's individuality too.. And individuality is necessary for love. There's no love in advaita state, so being love not missing in brahman, it is logic that aside transcendental unity there's also transcendental variety..

 

As we course into a zero ego state we see the god inside of us

••if we do not have individuality we see nothing. Surely we do not discover that we aren't servants of the supreme. If we weren't eternally subordinated we were also not illuded by maya about or real nature

 

Shankaracharya speak of True nature of such a person who lives/acts/interacts focusing on the supreme spiritual self

••Shankara Acharya advices the fool intellectuals (mudha mate) to abandone all other conceptions and worship govinda (bhaja govinda). Exactly like the Gita where Krsna says "leave all other dharmas and surrender to me.."

 

Krishna is ones own true nature

••that's not the information given by the Bhagavad Gita... in the Gita Krsna is the Bhagavan, the owner of everything.. the supreme lord, the one who will free us if we'll surrender to him

 

bhagavad gita is to be read as it is, and it is complete in itself, no speculation is required to understand his message. Gita states that we are eternal servants of Sri Krsna Bhagavan and that we have to surrender to Him to achieve any kind of realization..

 

 

[Guest guest]

While we speak of no differentiatedness for a zero ego state, there seems to be differentiation between all things, even the govinda as used by Shankaracharya & the Krishna we all refer.

 

Let's look at the gap of surrender in the consideration from the mail. This really speaks of the gap.

 

"Spiritual reality is simultaneous union and separation:

union because god is everything, separation because everything means that there's individuality too.. And individuality is necessary for love".

 

The need to identify with the individual self to demonstrate love or whatever, is always a lesser surrender than overlooking seperation with god altogether.

 

The demonstration of love/surrender with the focus on seperation of individual from the god looks good to observe etc. but it can be manipulated. That's why Krishna clearly appeals for actions without even the sense of doer-ship. That's doing actions without the typical thinking that "I did this, and see god is pleased.. etc..". The actions done without the sense of doer-ship cleanses us, a favourite maha mantra etc keeps us connected to our supreme self.

 

Thus the idea of God is not a one time stroke of light in front of the eyes or its middle. It's continous, it's pervasive, it's eternal in experience as we walk through this material world. True nature is living life connected to the supreme self, and without entanglements (like the lotus upon filthy water). Or like Lord Krishna amidst child-slaying, egoistic, & materialistic greedy people.

[imported_yasodanandana 0]

The need to identify with the individual self to demonstrate love or whatever, is always a lesser surrender

••everything can be a sign of lack of surrendering, i also can say that wanting to believe in advaita means that we do not want separation with god because we actually do not want to surrender (as bhagavad gita advices "Sarva dharma.. leave all dharmas and surrender tome"..) but we want to be god.

So, being obvious that in a conditionated state one can speak with many not so pure purposes, it is better to put attention on philosophy and logic..

 

So

 

there's no reason for believing that god missess something, He's omnipervasive.. He's also personal... He's everything and simultaneously different by everything.. He's ONE and simultaneously VARIOUS. We are one and different with Him. this difference makes necessary for us to surrender to Him and this difference creates the bliss of the transcendental relationships between Him and us

 

(love even in human terms is union and difference combined together)

 

that's Bhagavad Gita...

 

 

[Guest guest]

with all due respect Mr./Ms. Mano,Please stop speculating about the message of Bhagwad Gita according to your own unauthorised means.

That's not going to get you anywhere. I humbly request you with folded hands to read "Bhagwad Gita As It Is" by H.D.G. Srila Prabhupad. I assure you if you read with open mind without any bias it'll help you to understand the true message of Bhagwad Gita as It helped and still helping manny thousands of people from many walks of life throught the whole globe.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai Ho !!

Thanks and sorry any offences,

Your well wishing servant

 

[Guest guest]

"we do not want separation with god because we actually do not want to surrender, but we want to be god. So, being obvious that in a conditionated state one can speak with many not so pure purposes.."

**'We WANT to be God' conditioning is pure ignorance. This ignorance can be quelled by applying mind to questions such as "so what if a million people regard you as god, so what & how does it help you when pain strikes you from such desires".

 

It may also be ignorance to follow a non-advaithic school of thinking just because one wants to prove to the world that he/she is different from the 'so-called' set of people who desire the status of being considered as living-god by others.

 

 

 

"..this difference creates the bliss of the transcendental relationships between Him and us"

** ...May be 'between him & everything that's his' (which includes us)

[Guest guest]

with all due respect Mr./Ms. Mano,Please stop speculating about the message of Bhagwad Gita according to your own unauthorised means.

That's not going to get you anywhere. I humbly request you with folded hands to read "Bhagwad Gita As It Is" by H.D.G. Srila Prabhupad. I assure you if you read with open mind without any bias it'll help you to understand the true message of Bhagwad Gita as It helped and still helping manny thousands of people from many walks of life throught the whole globe.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai Ho !!

Thanks and sorry any offences,

Your well wishing servant

 

 

[imported_yasodanandana 0]

the eventuality of lack of sincerity in the spiritual research was brought by yourself.. you made the description of insincerity in dvaitist approach, i made it in an advaitist type of research. So this question is in my opinion closed.

 

love between "him and everything" is nice, and it is exactly like to say "him and us".. and you are correct, because both statements are not advaitic

 

love needs plurality of subjects

[Guest guest]

First connect with 'everything that's his'. And then analyse Advaitha or dwaitha based on the experience of the ego, which might be currently considering 'you' as seperate from the rest of everything which is also Gods.

[Guest guest]

with all due respect Mr./Ms. Mano,Please stop speculating about the message of Bhagwad Gita according to your own unauthorised means.

That's not going to get you anywhere. I humbly request you with folded hands to read "Bhagwad Gita As It Is" by H.D.G. Srila Prabhupad. I assure you if you read with open mind without any bias it'll help you to understand the true message of Bhagwad Gita as It helped and still helping manny thousands of people from many walks of life throught the whole globe.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai Ho !!

Thanks and sorry any offences,

Your well wishing servant

 

[Guest guest]

 

You make your own judgements & handle them. Here are your judgements.

"

Please stop speculating about the message of Bhagwad Gita according to your own unauthorised means

That's not going to get you anywhere

I assure you if you read with open mind without any bias it'll help you to understand the true message

"

 

I aspire for a quality of life than to be a receipiant of such quality of psuedo politeness.

"

with all due respect Mr./Ms. Mano

I humbly request you with folded hands

Thanks and sorry any offences,

Your well wishing servant

"

 

Thank you for the information as below..

"

to read "Bhagwad Gita As It Is" by H.D.G. Srila Prabhupad. It helped and still helping manny thousands of people from many walks of life throught the whole globe.

Srila Prabhupad ki Jai Ho !!

"

[Guest guest]

What is a quality of life ? and how can one achieve it?

[Guest guest]

why are u guys avading the orginal questions?

[imported_yasodanandana 0]

wich questions aren't answered?

(hareKRISHNA)

[Guest guest]

is this Shankaracharya that is teaching impersonalism and that krishna requests to teach to the demons?

 

also does anyone have any intel about yoga Nidra?

[Guest guest]

answers ? or do you all not know any thing about other schools of thought?

 

[Guest guest]

yes what is this interesting idea. anyone havea clue, i know what is from a internet POV but a vishnava view is perfered.

[Guest guest]

When you're already dealing with the most perfected non-subjective sourcematerial, why bother yourself with any school of thought?

[Guest guest]

As long as ISKCON cannot understand the point of view of a particular sage then they in order not to downplay the obvious greatness of the person they create this scenario. The teacher really knew everything but deliberately taught the wrong thing to delude the demons. Both Buddha and Shankara are subjected to this joke of an explanation. Shankara teaches material impersonalism The supreme lord does not have a material personality. Think about what constitutes a personality to begin with and then look at what Krsna says about himself. Advaita is not a philosophy, you should understand this very clearly. In the words of the great Suresvaacarya.. About this knowledge you cannot do anything because it is your own self.

 

 

When Krsna's message was losing potency and becoming misunderstood there came Lord Buddha. Notice he denounced the caste system, but not the one Krsna prescribed. He denounced what it had become. When the same thing happened to lord buddha's message Shankara came, this has always happened and it will continue to happen.

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Bagawad geetha is for perfecting a discipline of life which makes the advaitha philosophy into a reality.

 

And thus Bagawad geetha tries to convert the today's reality of Egoistic/materialistic life into a philosophy.

 

Therefore Bagawad geetha does not recognize Advaitha as a philosophy alone, but wants it not to stop untill it becomes a reality with good practices & discipline in society.

 

You guys can sympathise with a view that Krishna wanted more recognition as a god which he didn't get due to shaivites or whatever. So your praises & fighting for the credit of krishna, you may assume, will give you with rich rewards. It's your life and do what's best.

 

In reality Krishna lived in material world with his true spiritual nature totally without any entanglements. Whether the gopika's miss him badly or whether there were people in bagavatam who curse Krishna, nothing could ever entangle him into a mentally draining love affair or create a dire need to convince another person. There cannot be a more supreme example of ones true nature from spiritual origin.

 

When one undergoes spiritual realization, the true nature within one begins to surface, and this true nature is pushed back by society with all mighty pressure. Krishna stands as a great example who stands by his true nature, inspite of all chalenges. Krishna is so strong a personality that he is within everyne so long as one surrenders to ones own true nature.

 

Spiritual realization or awareness of brahman (shiva) is essential to become krishna concious. Well, chanting on krishna is good for spiritual realization. Try chanting when you want to speak for your own ego, thus allow for spiritual realization

[Guest guest]

the last two replies are great that fits what i am talking about.

[Guest guest]

The beauty of the geeta is that it can raise you up from the lowest of the low and take you to the highest of the high. Buddhism, Advaita etc are specialized. If you read Upadesa Sahasri of Shankara you would see what he classifies as one ready for study of Advaita. His teachings were meant for those who were at a sufficently advanced level to accept it. One must move progressively from dvaita to vishishta advaita to advaita. None is more important than the others, all are equally needed. Like take school for example you cant say: well university is more important than highschool or better than highschool. Without one you cant get to the other. One is the foundation for the next. It is not that one is a higher kind of knowledge and one is lower. We must get rid of these concepts.

 

While Shankara or Buddha would go exhaustively into dealing with people following jnana, the geeta deals with people at all levels. IT is broad and general. You would often read Krsna saying I shall now explain in brief... or thus I have summarised..... The beauty is that although he summarized with the help of a proficient teacher the entire vedic philosophy can be unravelled through it.

 

The geeta will help illumine your path no matter where you are. In the Geeta Dhyanam Shakara says the geeta showers the nectar of advaita :

 

"1. Om. O Bhagavad Gita, with which Partha was illumined by Lord Narayana Himself, and which was composed within the Mahabharata by the ancient sage, Vyasa, O Divine Mother, the destroyer of rebirth, the showerer of the nectar of Advaita, and consisting of eighteen discourses—upon Thee, O Gita, Oaffectionate Mother, I meditate! "

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

The buddha and Shankara are often put in the same class. They say that the job of the buddha was to delude the atheists. I really think it means he brought religion to the atheists. The truth is the truth from any standpoint. When atheism was becoming rampant and people were losing their way and ritulism was losing its inner meaning the Buddha dispensed with vedic philosophy and re-established the SAME ONE TRUTH approaching it a different way. Listen to no one, accept nothing because someone tells you to. This was his motto, and using this he unveiled that even without the vedic literature the SAME ONE TRUTH is uncovered. This is the beauty of his teachings. A lot of people do not understand his teachings or Shankara's because they read the words without understanding the meanings. Both teach you to go beyond concepts, go beyond words, destroy the ego. Let me see if I can find one of the Buddha's teachings.. Ah here it is :

 

Seeing the Blessed One, Dona approached him and said:

"Will your reverence become a deva?"

"No, brahmin, I shall not become a deva."

"Then your reverence might become a gandhabba."

"No, brahmin, I shall not become a gandhabba."

"Then will your reverence become a yakkha?"

"No, brahmin, I shall not become a yakkha."

"Then will your reverence become a human being?"

"No, brahmin, I shall not become a human being."

"Now when I asked whether your reverence will become a deva or a gandhabba or a yakkha or a human being, you replied, 'I shall not.' What, then, will your reverence become?"

"Brahmin, those outflows whereby, if they were not abandoned, I might become a deva - these outflows are abandoned by me, cut off at the root, made barren like palm-tree stumps, obliterated so that they are no more subject to arise in the future.

"Just as, brahmin, a blue, red or white lotus, though born and grown in the water, rises up and stands unsoiled by the water, so, brahmin, though born and grown in the world, I have overcome the world and dwell unsoiled by the world. Consider me, O brahmin, a Buddha." (Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 87 - 88)

 

 

"What do you think, Vaccha? Suppose a fire were burning before you. Would you know: `This fire is burning before me'?"

"I would, Master Gotama."

"If someone were to ask you, Vaccha: `What does this fire burning before you burn in dependence on?' - being asked thus, what would you answer?"

"Being asked thus, Master Gotama, I would answer: `This fire burning before me burns in dependence on grass and sticks.'"

"If that fire before you were to be extinguished, would you know: `This fire before me has been extinguished'?"

"I would, Master Gotama."

"If someone were to ask you, Vaccha: `When that fire before you was extinguished, to which direction did it go: to the east, the west, the north, or the south?' - being asked thus, what would you answer?"

"That does not apply, Master Gotama. The fire burned in dependence on its fuel of grass and sticks. When that is used up, if it does not get any more fuel, being without fuel, it is reckoned as extinguished."

"So too, Vaccha, the Tathagata has abandoned that material form by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him; he has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising. The Tathagata is liberated from reckoning in terms of material form, Vaccha, he is profound, immeasurable, unfathomable like the ocean. The terms `reappears' does not apply, the term `does not reappear' does not apply, the term `both reappears and does not reappear' does not apply, the term `neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply. The Tathagata has abandoned that feeling by which one describing the the Tathagata might describe him... has abandoned that perception by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him... has abandoned those formations by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him... has abandoned that consciousness by which one describing the Tathagata might describe him; he has cut it off at the root, made it like a palm stump, done away with it so that it is no longer subject to future arising. The Tathagata is liberated from reckoning in terms of consciousness, Vaccha; he is profound, immeasurable, unfathomable like the ocean. The term `reappears' does not apply, the term `does not reappear' does not apply, the term `both reappears and does not reappear' does not apply, the term `neither reappears nor does not reappear' does not apply." (The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, pp. 593 - 594)

 

Here what he is saying is simply you cannot hold on to conceptions saying THIS is the truth. It is something you must just BE. Even in Isavasya upanishad one of the last verses I cant remember the exact number says The face of truth is covered by a golden disc. Remove it, oh Pushan so that I who have lived a righteous and truthful life may see it.

 

The person had taken the form of the Sun, the golden disc, for their worship and meditation, now after offering everything unto that deity they are saying this deity is my last conception ( in the next verse the sun is called the solitary traveller), the only thing in my mind, and praying now that even that may be removed so that they may be free conceptions and see the truth. Krsna also says this in the bhagavad geeta that one should be free from mental speculation. This also ties in with one pointedness of devotion but that is another story.

 

 

[Guest guest]

the beauty of the gita is pure, i read it and was instantly attracted to it, no man can, nore could convince me of any thing about it. i just read it and knew the truth of it. i have never felt and devinity in any scriptures till the gita and the vedas.

 

one could burn all those books but the gita and the vedas they are different to me.

 

i have trouble taking anything people say with and seriousness unless it is our dharma.

some vedic books are beyond me but the gita that i find it managable to my complex mind. as it seems so simple that it study can continue to reveal more each time i read it.

karmis tell me i have this high i.q. top 1% of the populace and i still find this book worth reading again and again.

 

i find all religion to be nonsense. but vishnavaism is not religion it's the only way of seeing life and the only guide for most men.