Sankara Jayanthi Celebration: Members comments

[Guest guest]

>"Ram Chandran" <chandran

>May I request all active members of the List to post few words on the

>following question:

>"What is the role of Shankara's Advaita Philosophy and or Bhagagavd Gita in

>our daily life?"

 

HARI OM,

I was introduced to the Advaitin List last autumn by Shri Madhava

for which I am really Thankful to him. Judging by the Scholarship and

Sadhana displayed in the list's postings, I consider myself to be lucky in

having an opportunity to look at it and learn from it. I would not have been

in it but for Shri Madhava. Personally the participation had a substantial

impact on me in the following areas:

 

1) It is the first time that I read about Shankara's enomorous contribution

to Hindu religion and Spiritual thought process. As I am from Vaishanvite

background, I was not exposed to it before. So it created a positive

awareness and desire to know more.

 

2) It also induced me to read other relevant texts on Vedanta, Ramanuja and

Madhava schools of Vedanta. I cannot honestly say that I have come to any

conclusion on the subject. I am still a student, but I see the irrelevance

of calling oneself as Iyengar, Brahmin etc or other such caste names without

even knowing the foundation of the basic concepts.

 

3) The postings on spiritual episodes by Ramakrishna Mutt and Shri Madhava

and others has convinced me about the mystical aspects of our Hindu

religion. It is more than mere set of logical arguments. There is more to

the world than what meets the eye.

 

4) The Gita satsang has been useful in knowing what exactly is said in a

major religious text about which one hears all the time. I have to admit

that I cannot yet comprehend logically, its place as the central text for

all Hindus as projected in the media and infact what the final message is,

as there appears to be several recommendations, contradictions and

repetitions in it. I am not disputing it but only saying that I need to

study it in more depth, to get to its real meaning and value for me

personally. I can see it will take time.

 

5) Finally the whole expreience has made me feel more humane and not just

evaluate my material success and failures. It has given me a set of long

range Universal values & goals and alternative system of personal assessment

free of other's judgements but based on my own consciousness and

relationship with God.

 

6) One change of Habit has been to get up and pray at 4.30 am everyday for

an hour which I would have considered impossible for me earlier.

 

My apologies to the list members for going into few "paragraphs" instead of

few words as asked for. I have yet to discover brevity.

 

P.B.V.Rajan

 

 

______________________

Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com