Guest guest Posted July 22, 2001 Report Share Posted July 22, 2001 Pre-requisite of Intellectual abilities to understand the 'Spirit' Taken from Ashokananda's talk "Four pillars of Wisdom" You may consider yourself intelligent, and you may be intelligent in certain respects, but if you want to understand the subtlest of all realities, the Spirit, then you have to develop and refine your intellect. Vedanta does not assume that its philosophy can be understood by just anyone. No system of knowledge has ever adapted itself to ignorance. For instance, if you want to understand Einstein's theory of relativity you have to have some training in Physics. Why should you think that without any preparation you should be able to understand religion, the subtlest of all studies? So I say that those of you who have brains and ability should study. But at the same time you have to practice. That was the ancient way. One who studied Vedanta had first to fulfil certain conditions. He would be taken through certain disciplines to purify his reason and to make his mind subtle and strong, then he would understand certain principles; then he would practice further, then he would generate greater understanding.... and so on. In this way the development of intellect and the deepening of experience become simultaneous....... You will not be subject to vacillations of faith, and therefore your practice of spirituality will be unhampered by this risk....... Commentary: "No system of knowledge has ever adapted itself to ignorance"...... What a grand observation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 23, 2001 Report Share Posted July 23, 2001 namaste. I must say I am surprised at the title presented here (ascribed as excerpt from swami Ashokananda's talk) by shri Vivekananda Centre that intellectual ability is a pre-requisite for understanding the 'spirit'. The next thing we would see is probably an advertisement by a brahmavidyApeeTh looking for persons with incisive intellectual abilities for study of AtmavidyA !! Leaving sarcasm aside, I take "understanding 'spirit'" in the referred post to mean AtmavidyA or brahmavidyA. If AtmavidyA is an intellectual exercise requiring incisive intellectual capability, all highly intellectual persons would have been brahmavids. If understanding 'spirit' is an intellectual analysis leading to a mAsters or a Ph.D., then I have no objection in seeing intellectual ability as a prerequisite. They obtain a Ph.D. in spiritual science, write books on spiritual science and get glorified as a result. But, that is not brahmavid. BrahmavidyA is not an intellectual science like study of physics or chemistry. Upanishads say in a united voice that brahmavidyA is not one grasped by the intellect but is a much deeper transformation of a human. Intellect is required, yes, in nityAnityavastuviveka but beyond that, cittashuddhi is what is the prerequisite. Thus, I have to disagree with what is presented as swami Ashokananda's view on the role of intellect. My apologies if my presentation is too critical. Regards Gummuluru Murthy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 23, 2001 Report Share Posted July 23, 2001 Namaste, Swami Ashokananda's excerpt deserves neither the sarcasm nor the disagreement! Put simply, it asserts the need to develop enough intellect to understand the 'prasthaana-traya', if one is inclined to follow the Vedantic approach to brahmavidyaa. Regards, s. advaitin, Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy@m...> wrote: > > namaste. > > I must say I am surprised at the title presented here (ascribed > as excerpt from swami Ashokananda's talk) by shri Vivekananda > Centre that intellectual ability is a pre-requisite for > understanding the 'spirit'. The next thing we would see is > probably an advertisement by a brahmavidyApeeTh looking for > persons with incisive intellectual abilities for study of > AtmavidyA !! > > Leaving sarcasm aside, I take "understanding 'spirit'" in > the referred post to mean AtmavidyA or brahmavidyA. If AtmavidyA > is an intellectual exercise requiring incisive intellectual > capability, all highly intellectual persons would have been > brahmavids. > > If understanding 'spirit' is an intellectual analysis leading > to a mAsters or a Ph.D., then I have no objection in seeing > intellectual ability as a prerequisite. They obtain a Ph.D. > in spiritual science, write books on spiritual science and > get glorified as a result. But, that is not brahmavid. > BrahmavidyA is not an intellectual science like study of > physics or chemistry. > > Upanishads say in a united voice that brahmavidyA is not one > grasped by the intellect but is a much deeper transformation > of a human. Intellect is required, yes, in nityAnityavastuviveka > but beyond that, cittashuddhi is what is the prerequisite. > > Thus, I have to disagree with what is presented as swami > Ashokananda's view on the role of intellect. > > My apologies if my presentation is too critical. > > Regards > Gummuluru Murthy > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 24, 2001 Report Share Posted July 24, 2001 On Mon, 23 Jul 2001 sunderh wrote: > Namaste, > > Swami Ashokananda's excerpt deserves neither the sarcasm nor > the disagreement! > > Put simply, it asserts the need to develop enough intellect to > understand the 'prasthaana-traya', if one is inclined to follow the > Vedantic approach to brahmavidyaa. > > > Regards, > > s. > > > advaitin, Gummuluru Murthy <gmurthy@m...> wrote: > > > > namaste. > > > > I must say I am surprised at the title presented here (ascribed > > as excerpt from swami Ashokananda's talk) by shri Vivekananda > > Centre that intellectual ability is a pre-requisite for > > understanding the 'spirit'. The next thing we would see is > > probably an advertisement by a brahmavidyApeeTh looking for > > persons with incisive intellectual abilities for study of > > AtmavidyA !! > > > > Leaving sarcasm aside, I take "understanding 'spirit'" in > > the referred post to mean AtmavidyA or brahmavidyA. If AtmavidyA > > is an intellectual exercise requiring incisive intellectual > > capability, all highly intellectual persons would have been > > brahmavids. > > > > If understanding 'spirit' is an intellectual analysis leading > > to a mAsters or a Ph.D., then I have no objection in seeing > > intellectual ability as a prerequisite. They obtain a Ph.D. > > in spiritual science, write books on spiritual science and > > get glorified as a result. But, that is not brahmavid. > > BrahmavidyA is not an intellectual science like study of > > physics or chemistry. > > > > Upanishads say in a united voice that brahmavidyA is not one > > grasped by the intellect but is a much deeper transformation > > of a human. Intellect is required, yes, in nityAnityavastuviveka > > but beyond that, cittashuddhi is what is the prerequisite. > > > > Thus, I have to disagree with what is presented as swami > > Ashokananda's view on the role of intellect. > > > > My apologies if my presentation is too critical. > > > > Regards > > Gummuluru Murthy > > > namaste shri sunder-ji, Your comment is well-taken and I am thankful to you for giving me the opportunity to clarify my earlier comments. Sarcasm and criticism are not intended toward swami Ashokanandaji. I find the title of the post to be mis-leading and is basically an imposition of the correspondent's personal view on a selected excerpt from swami Ashokananda's talk. In my view, to say that swami Ashokanandaji said that intellectual abilities is THE basic pre-requisite (leaving aside other parameters in sAdhanacatuShTayam) is a dis-service to the swamiji. My comment is on the selected title and I pointed that out at the beginning of my earlier post. Let us say we have a multiple-choice question like the following: What is the essential basic pre-requisite (if there is a pre-requisite) for AtmavidyA? (a) incisive intellect (b) cittashuddhi © sannyAsa Ashrama (d) performing nitya, naimittika-karmA-s without fail The choice (a) incisive intellect falls well below what is the correct answer. I am sure swami Ashokanandaji agrees with that. So, my comment is on what I think is the biased choice of the title and trying to read that into the swamiji's talk. Regards Gummuluru Murthy ------ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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