Guest guest Report post Posted February 14, 1999 Forwarding to two other lists. My reply is at the bottom....Harsha Ram Chandran wrote: > Ram Chandran <chandran > > What do I really own? > > Harsha in a recent post has stated that Ram is the owner of the Advaitin > List. For several hours, I pondered over this statement to understand > what does ownership really mean and I have summarized my thoughts > below. I want to thank Harsha for raising this interesting question. > > First, every member of this spiritual forum is a share holder and we > have our rights and liabilities. No monetary benefits (and hopefully no > liabilities) accrue from the ownership these shares and consequently, > our minds enjoy more peace! Though, we have freedom to discuss what we > desire our discussions are subject to the restriction imposed by the > list policies. Inescapably, We have limitations similar to the goat > tied to the post with the rope. The list policies are self-imposed and > we developed those policies to focus our discussions to the list > objectives. Each owner defines the role and chooses (free-will!) a role > to play and the role defines the responsibility. Implicitly, we just > own the role and we are obligated with new responsibilities. Our roles > vary from time to time. We switch our roles quite often from discussion > leaders to participants to silent listeners. Sometime we even become > judges! The greatest wealth of this list is the collective wisdom of > those members who contribute to the discussions by keeping them highly > focused and dedicate a significant amount of their time. I believe > those dedicated unselfish contributors are the real owners of this > list. > > This spiritual forum is a great vehicle to learn and practice Karma > Yoga. The author of any article has to accept the outcome whether the > article receives congratulatory remarks or criticisms. If the author > posts with the Karma Yagna attitude, he or she can free the mind from > unnecessary agitation! The authors should be thankful when someone else > takes the time to read and point out an obvious mistake. When we learn > our mistakes, it is painful but such a pain is inevitable. However, any > resulting suffering through mind agitation is an avoidable option! > > In conclusion, I believe that all members of the list collectively own > this list and own the underlined responsibilities. I own the > responsibility of List moderation. The one-list administration has > outlined a list of duties of the list moderator. In addition, the > members of Advaitin List have added more responsibilities. When we came > to this universe, we started our life with more and greater > responsibilities. We chose to own various roles at different periods of > our life. However, after sometime, we got fed up with the ownership and > we want to surrender the ownership to realize full freedom. > Philosophically, one could ask the question - what do I really own? On > first thought, I thought that I got the answer. On second thought, I > have to admit that I have no answer! Do you have the answer? > > Ram Chandran > List Moderator > Harsha: Thank you Ram Ji for your insightful analysis and question. It is hard to answer the question, "What do I really own?". Any attempt to answer the question would have to rely on the mind. But do we really own the mind? The mind is after all a complex interplay of various types of social, psychological, and biological conditioning. For example on our "sister list" at TAMU.EDU, they are busy debating the differences between Samkhya and Vedanta and (implicitly) the relative merits of the philosphers/sages behind them. The list that I moderate (not own - Thank you Ram Ji), the issue of difference between Vedantic nonudualism and Shavism non dualism has been raised. Do we even own our attachments to various schools of thoughts Ram ji? My experience is that everything (attachment to the mind itself) must be given up entirely to the Lord in order to enter the Lord that sits in the Heart and Is the Heart. So what do we really own? I cannot say. Perhaps the Lord of the Heart, Who is the Pure and Supreme Being, Eternal and Whole, Owns us. But upon being absorbed by the Owner, there is nothing left but the Owner. Currently on lease :-) Harsha Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest guest Report post Posted February 15, 1999 Your reply was super, Harsha. Here's where I'm bouncing around these days: attachment to the path/letting the path go, needing to know God/letting this desire go, too -- kind of a pleasant, though turbulent, ride and God knows I'm not the driver! Holly Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
