Searching for advaita & Vedanta on the web

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Hari Om,

 

 

I want to share with the list members the experience of writing

the 4 parts as Drafts for "Primer for Beginners in Advaita".

 

 

Writing the 500 words simple introductory notes on "Religion" and "Hinduism"

each, did not need any search on the web as I have some prior knowledge about

the subject having researched it for other reasons.

 

 

I researched Vedanta and Advaita on the web and was suprised at what I found,

both the quantity and quality. My conclusions are just personal and need not be

authoritative.

 

 

In both cases, there are a large number of sites and examining most of them can

take several hours, if not days.

 

 

In general, I found the Vednata sites to be better and with reasonably good

contents, in the sense they referred to the sources more accurately. On the

otherhand, I found that "Advaitin" had become a growth industry with so many

names claiming the territory where as I always thought it was Adi Sankara who

was the main exponent. His presence is less than 5% (as per my count). This

could be because the philosophy has caught the imagination of the western

intellectuals much more than interest in it as a Vedantic discipline. It seems

to have acquired its own orbit, not just, one more of the vague but interesting

points of view from the old relics of Hinduism.

 

 

Several sites have put forth the theory of "self" as if it were another part

within the body like the "heart" or the "Brain" and simplified the process of

Self-realization. There were also several e-commerce sites selling books,

retreats etc.

 

 

As far as I could make out, Adi Sankara never said it was simple to practice it

although the final conclusion can be stated in, a simple one liner. If you read

all what he wrote, you cannot but be guarded in your approach. There is no quick

fix as I can see it. It appears that there are 2 main brands of Advaita now -

one recommended by Adi Sankara and the second by others who are possibly

arriving at the same conclusions by other means. It is also possible they are

misguided-I do not know. But I am certain Adi Sankara was right in what he said.

 

 

I would like to end this with some extracts which I found on the web on the

further research. (The last para is mine)

"If you want to read the original philosophical works that established the

Advaitin tradition as a popular concept, begin with Adi Sankara. His most

important books are Brahma Sutra Bhasya and his commentaries on various

Upanisads. Some easier books such as Viveka-Chudamani and Atmabodhi were also

traditionally attributed to him, (but some have questioned whether he really

wrote them).

 

The Advaitin tradition has also produced a large number of books by gurus

intended to help other people become self-realized. The two greatest authors in

this category in recent times are Ramana Maharshi, and Nisargadatta Maharaj."

 

Two major missions which promote the Advaita theory are Ramakrishna Mission and

Chinmaya Mission. My recommendation is to start with the web site being

maintained by the moderator (Shri Ramachandran) of this group:

http://www.geocities.com/advaitins This has a direct link to the postings on

this list.

 

Pranams.

P.B.V.Rajan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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