Guest guest Posted September 24, 1998 Report Share Posted September 24, 1998 Greetings Advaitins: It is my great pleasure to send you the background information of Shri Sadanand, the most active member of this group. The enclosed information was provided by him to Advaita-L list when he joined that group few years back. I know Shri Sadanand for the past six years and he has been quite active spiritually in Chinmaya Mission, Shri Siva Vishnu Temple. He has been conducting adults Satsangs in the Northern Virginia Area on several topics including Bhagavat Gita, Atma Bodh, Self-Unfoldment, Upadeshasar, and others. Most important, everybody likes him as a person and as a teacher. His wife Shrimathi Mrinalini is an accomplished Bharathnatyam Artist who conducts Bharathnatyam classes for students of all ages. Their daughter, Kirthana (got married last summer) is a medical doctor and she is also trained in Bharathanatyam. We are very fortunate to have Shri Sadanand to guide and moderate the postings of Advaitins. Ram Chandran Burke, VA Shri Sadanand's Self Introduction. ==================================================================== For the record I was asked to introduce myself before I post any articles. Although the request appears to be reasonable, as I started to write, I started wondering - How can I introduce my self to an Advaitic group. I am beginning to realize the dilemma Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi felt in trying to write his first invocation poems for his Satdarshan text. "Satpratyah kinnu vihaaya santum ......" He says "Oh! Lord I want to think of you. But how can I think of you, who is the nature of the existence, that which exists even before any thoughts arise. All I can do is be established in that existence" This itself is a prayer stanza for the rest of the text that followed. How can I introduce myself to an Advaitic group? That I am SatChitAnanda? Such an introduction is useless and trivial to this group! But besides who is there to whom I have to introduce myself! Being ananda, in fact being Sadaananda, by scriptural statements that Anantameva anandaha - infiniteness (brahman) alone is ananda. and Ekameva adviteeyam Brahman (one alone and not two is brahman) there cannot be anybody else besides myself even to think of the need for any introduction! I just read with interest the discussion that is going on in terms of seer and the seen and that one can negate the seen but not the seer. Actually seer is there with reference to the seen and the seeing. What is negated in the seen is not that the seen does not exist, since the non-existent seen can never be seen, even to contemplate the negation. Since it is seen, it exists. What is negated is the dwaita state, that the notion that the seen is different from the seer. Since it is a notion the notion can be negated by understanding that it is only a notion and not a fact. In the "dR^ikh dR^isya viveka" (I am trying to use the same ITRS scheme used in the Sanskrit internet) Bhagawan Sankara says antarh (halanta) dR^ik dR^isyayorbhedam bahischa brahma swargayoH aavR^inosya paraashaktiH saasamsaarasya kaaranam. The seer and the seen distinction in the mind, and the distinction of brahman and the created outside are all due to the power of Maya (here of the two powers the reference is for the projecting power) which is the cause for the apparent plurality or the resulting samsaara. In the Advaita Makaranda, Lakshmidharakavi says -of the five- Asti bhati priyam ruupam namam, the first three are due to brahman and the rest of the two are due to Maya - that is asti(existence) bhati (awareness), Priyam( likeness - ananda aspect), ruupam(form), nama(name), the first three is related to SatChitAnanda aspect of Brahman and the last two are projecting power of the Maya. For seeing the ruupam is the essential aspect of the seen and namam an association for intellectual distinctions, the last two are negated as the aspect of Maya - ya maa saa maaya - that which appears to be there but does not stand for inquiry. With that understanding I can now introduce myself, the name and the form that which is there but not really there- "Professionally, I am a material scientist working for the Navy. Personally, I am a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda trying to pass on what I have learned from Him to my friends through vedanta classes and discussion groups in Washington D.C.. For the record I was asked to introduce myself before I post any articles. Although the request appears to be reasonable, as I started to write, I started wondering - How can I introduce my self to an Advaitic group. I am beginning to realize the dilemma Bhagavan Ramana Maharshi felt in trying to write his first invocation poems for his Satdarshan text. "Satpratyah kinnu vihaaya santum ......" He says "Oh! Lord I want to think of you. But how can I think of you, who is the nature of the existence, that which exists even before any thoughts arise. All I can do is be established in that existence" This itself is a prayer stanza for the rest of the text that followed. How can I introduce myself to an Advaitic group? That I am SatChitAnanda? Such an introduction is useless and trivial to this group! But besides who is there to whom I have to introduce myself! Being ananda, in fact being Sadaananda, by scriptural statements that Anantameva anandaha - infiniteness (brahman) alone is ananda. and Ekameva adviteeyam Brahman (one alone and not two is brahman) there cannot be anybody else besides myself even to think of the need for any introduction! I just read with interest the discussion that is going on in terms of seer and the seen and that one can negate the seen but not the seer. Actually seer is there with reference to the seen and the seeing. What is negated in the seen is not that the seen does not exist, since the non-existent seen can never be seen, even to contemplate the negation. Since it is seen, it exists. What is negated is the dwaita state, that the notion that the seen is different from the seer. Since it is a notion the notion can be negated by understanding that it is only a notion and not a fact. In the "dR^ikh dR^isya viveka" (I am trying to use the same ITRS scheme used in the Sanskrit internet) Bhagawan Sankara says antarh (halanta) dR^ik dR^isyayorbhedam bahischa brahma swargayoH aavR^inosya paraashaktiH saasamsaarasya kaaranam. The seer and the seen distinction in the mind, and the distinction of brahman and the created outside are all due to the power of Maya (here of the two powers the reference is for the projecting power) which is the cause for the apparent plurality or the resulting samsaara. In the Advaita Makaranda, Lakshmidharakavi says -of the five- Asti bhati priyam ruupam namam, the first three are due to brahman and the rest of the two are due to Maya - that is asti(existence) bhati (awareness), Priyam( likeness - ananda aspect), ruupam(form), nama(name), the first three is related to SatChitAnanda aspect of Brahman and the last two are projecting power of the Maya. For seeing the ruupam is the essential aspect of the seen and namam an association for intellectual distinctions, the last two are negated as the aspect of Maya - ya maa saa maaya - that which appears to be there but does not stand for inquiry. With that understanding I can now introduce myself, the name and the form that which is there but not really there- "Professionally, I am a material scientist working for the Navy. Personally, I am a disciple of Swami Chinmayananda trying to pass on what I have learned from Him to my friends through vedanta classes and discussion groups in Washington D.C.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You are posting as a guest. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.