Guest guest Posted December 22, 1999 Report Share Posted December 22, 1999 Greetings Advaitins: Sri Madhavaji' announcement about the Gita Satsang is an exciting news for all advaitins. The Gita Satsang is a great opportunity for youngsters to actively take part in the discussions. The list has a huge contingent of youngsters including: Anand Nataraja, Aja, Ashish, Anthony, Antoine, Ganesh Ponnuswamy, Denise, Devendra, Ganesh Deivasikhamani , Gokulmuthu , Jaishankar, Anand Kumar, Joe, Jim, Kalyankumar, Lynne, listme, Madhava, Nenad, Rahul, Roshan, Roopa, Arvind, Kumar, Sreekala, Skyebell, Nallagonda, Kartik, Suresh, Too, Venkatasubramanian, and many others. We are also fortunate that a dedicated youngster, Madhavaji (none other than Krishna) is going to lead the discussions. Please ask questions when you have doubts and please don't hesitate to share your thoughts when someone raises with questions. Please also remember that the purpose of this Satsang is to contemplate and try to find answers and not for pointing out mistakes. Finally I earnestly request all the members (especially youngsters) to inform and encourage your friends to participate. Sri Madhavaji has great plans and ideas and he will be posting them soon. Gita Satsang is a great task and Madhavaji needs our cooperation, support and love. Happy Holidays and Happy and Peaceful Millennium. Ram Chandran Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 5, 2000 Report Share Posted January 5, 2000 Greetings, Dissent and assent are phenomena of duality; these will ALWAYS exist! Advaitins try to go beyond it. There are as many commentators dissenting from Shankara as assenting. Shankara himself dissented from his predecessors (he mentions 8 commentators of Brahmasutra!) Legend has it that Shukla Yajur Veda was composed after the disciple dissented with his teacher, who then refused to impart the knowledge, and the disciple worshipped the Sun who then imparted the knowledge! Gita stands as an eternal monument to the attempt for "samanvaya", synthesis. As Sri Ramakrishna said (paraphrasing Gita) scriptures are like a shopping list; they are useless after you find its contents. Just enjoy the purchases! Gita also says : you will not need what you have heard, and have yet to hear, once you know yourself; or one who knows Reality has as much use for scriptures as one has for a pond after a flood!! " bhaktyaa tvananyayaa shakya ahameva.nvidho.arjuna . j~naatu.n drashhTu.n cha tattvena praveshhTu.n cha para.ntapa .. " Only by union in devotion am I [Atman] can I be truly known, seen, and entered in this manner. Regards, Sunder ----Original Message Follows---- pkenny advaitin advaitin 5 Jan 2000 17:55:51 -0000 Hello, I've been lurking around this list for a while, a little unsure as to whether I should seek to become a member, my dilemma being that I love the Bhagavad Gita but I am not in sympathy with much of the Vedanta. (I find Atman to be a much more useful idea than Brahman.) Perhaps you'll consider giving me a probabtionary membership Surely one of the most extraordinary things about the Gita is the variety of different not to say conflicting interpretations it has spawned; my own reading of it is informed principally by Spinoza's _Ethics_ (which promotes an idea of God which in my understanding is quite harmonious with the Supreme Self of the Gita but is otherwise very difficult to reconcile with any of the major theistic religions). The ethos of this list does not put a premium on dissent (a notable exception being a heated exchange that took place a while back on the subject of desire) but I for one would like nothing better than to see some real disagreements emerge about how to read the Gita. Of course I'll keep the peace unless others feel the same way but in case anybody's interested I would like to take issue with the following post. It seems quite clear to me that the theory of human nature promulgated by the Gita (like Spinoza's) has no room for the notion of free will so that man is *not* in any absolute sense 'Responsible For His Actions'. If memory serves the question in the third paragraph below ("Impelled by what Krishna does man commit sin involuntarily, as though driven by force?") is asked in Chapter 3 and the answer is that man is so impelled by the guna of rajas. It is made quite clear in Chapter 3 that *all* of man's actions are determined by the interplay of the gunas and that only those deluded by ahamkara believe that "I am the doer" whereas the enlightened person sees that the gunas alone act. Likewise Arjuna will be impelled to fight by prakriti whether he likes it or not (Chapter 18) and the slaughter of his enemies is predetermined (Chapter 11). Whatever the ethical teachings of the Gita are, they are *not* based on free-will. Patrick ____ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2000 Report Share Posted January 6, 2000 And : " Silence is the only friend that never betrays! " Confucius. ----Original Message Follows---- Patrick Kenny <pkenny advaitin advaitin Re: Gita satsang Thu, 06 Jan 2000 10:09:31 -0500 Sunder Hattangadi wrote: > > Greetings, > > Dissent and assent are > phenomena of duality; these will > ALWAYS > exist! Opposition is true friendshhip --- William Blake Patrick ____ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 6, 2000 Report Share Posted January 6, 2000 Sunder Hattangadi wrote: > > Greetings, > > Dissent and assent are > phenomena of duality; these will > ALWAYS > exist! Opposition is true friendshhip --- William Blake Patrick Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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