Prof. V.Krishnamurthy's Advice to List

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

On the eve of Prof. VK's return to India, the junior

moderators sought his observations and advice on the current state of

the List's fulfilment of its goals. May his advice serve us as a

guide, and blessings as well.

 

We all wish him a happy journey, and hopes he keeps us on

leash with his 'Kurma-drishti'! -(the tortoise which guards its young

from a distance) :

 

Graciously, as usual, he said:

 

 

"......one thing I want to emphasize as a general directive

principle for our entire list of members. In that sense,

this may even go on the public list as a general post from

me. Here is my general comment:

 

Now and then I see on this list, (and certainly so in many

other lists) discussions branching off to one or other of

the following:

(a) A discussion on a personal note as to who understands

Shankara best;

(b) A discussion on why one person said what he/she said

and why what was said was right or wrong;

© A discussion on why a certain interpretation has to be

the right interpretation because of the support from a

certain scripture or bhashya.

 

Of these three © is very legitimate as a discussion on

the list. But even here, the discussion slowly strays

around to something that belongs to (a) or (b). Again (a)

and (b) by themselves are not wrong but when (b) is pursued

relentlessly to the point of tiring out the readers, there

comes a stage when it crosses the threshold and becomes a

discussion on a theme that is clearly in (a).

 

And that is where we all forget ourselves!

 

May I therefore plead for a self-analysis by each member

and when we realise that we are branching off into (b) and

slowly into (a), we should just learn to be silent for some

time -- like a week --, irrespective of what responses

emanate from others. In fact that is the time when we have

to resist the temptation to plunge in, plausibly in order

to correct the other person or to make assertions about

"what I really meant ...." and the like.

 

Being a member of the advaitin list with the objective of

understanding Shankara better, we owe this much at least.

..............these golden words of advice cannot be

over-emphasized. How to be a practical Vedantin? We have

opportunities every day on the way we respond to posts on

the list. If the words of the other person are not

satisfactory, let us try just once to correct it , but

thereafter, any further pursuit of the same idea in further

word-play will bring in only the play of our own ego

without our cognisance. "

 

With regards

profvk

 

=================================================================

Prof. V. Krishnamurthy

My website on Science and Spirituality is

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/

You can access my book on Gems from the Ocean of Hindu Thought

Vision

and Practice, and my father R. Visvanatha Sastri's manuscripts from

the site.

Also see the webpages on Paramacharya's Soundaryalahari :

http://www.geocities.com/profvk/gohitvip/DPDS.html

[Guest guest]

Namaste and many pranams to all advaitins

 

There is a phrase ' saathan vedam odhugirathu' in tamil, equivalent

of the 'devil quoting scriptures'.

As someone who has been guilty of getting into the undesirable 'a'

and 'b' modes , I still feel like being a part of the soul searching

exercise in this group.

 

Like adi shaktiji says elsewhere in this list, the sped word never

comes back. Thus if i had said something hurtful to others, even

after a million silent apologies, even after getting a sense of being

forgiven, the wounds in my own heart don't heal. It does take a lot

of purging effort to undo all damage that the 'a' and 'b' mode words

have done to my own internal equipment. So a careful abidance in

the 'c' mode with a brief mowna in case one finds onself straying

into 'a' or 'b' mode is indeed a beautiful and loving prescription.

 

A hard hitting excerpt on what could go wrong in Satsangha from Swami

Chidatmananda's ( An Acharya of Chinmaya Mission) talk on Witness the

Ego - link and excerpt below- could also be useful in the soul

searching exercise.

 

http://www.chinmayauk.org/Articles/Articles%20By%20Mission%

20Teachers/Swami%20Chidatmananda/1.htm

 

"What is success in the materialistic life-it is gathering money,

gathering name, fame, property, people. This is what is fame, this is

what is success in materialistic world. When the same ego enters into

the spiritual field also it thinks it can be successful only by

strengthening the ego, only by gathering the vastu, only by gathering

the paristhithi's, only by gathering the vrittis and in vedantha

marga, in spiritual field, strengthening the ego will be a flop.

 

There will be no success at all in the spiritual field. Why there are

clashes? Why there is lot of heat generated in satsangha? It is only

because clash of the titan's ego's. No other reason. There cannot be

any other reason. If I am not aware of this, why I am entering into

spiritual path, I am taking up satsangha ,and getting into adhyatmic

marga if I am not aware! I am un-necessarily wasting and accumulating

papa karma by disturbing myself and by disturbing others also.I

should be conscious, I should be aware .Why at all this? Ego

accumulation, strengthening of the ego will be a failure in adhyatmic

marga, that is why people entering into satsangha cannot

understand.why ego can't be strengthened because this is not the

materialistic way.

 

This is spiritual path. In spiritual path entirely the methodology is

totally different.Real success of gaining quietitude.real success of

reaching higher states of spiritual level is possible only when we

drop the ego, not accumulate the ego but it is strange to us, foreign

to us.All these years we have been strengthening our ego, how can we

understand it suddenly, .without the knowledge entering our mastak.

Extract this from the pustak and let us put it in our mastak and let

us understand this. Astavakra says that we are wasting our life. ,by

accumulating the vishayas ,by accumulating the vrittis. "

 

It does appear that principles/ methodologies on which we work in the

material plane need to be consciously changed when we enter into

satsangha.

 

Hope this is useful.

Many thousand namaskarams to all advaitins

Sridhar

 

advaitin, "advaitins" <moderators@a...> wrote:

> Namaste,

>

> On the eve of Prof. VK's return to India, the junior

> >

> Graciously, as usual, he said:

>

>

> "......one thing I want to emphasize as a general directive

> principle for our entire list of members. In that sense,

> this may even go on the public list as a general post from

> me. Here is my general comment:

>

>

> May I therefore plead for a self-analysis by each member

> and when we realise that we are branching off into (b) and

> slowly into (a), we should just learn to be silent for some

> time -- like a week --, irrespective of what responses

> emanate from others. In fact that is the time when we have

> to resist the temptation to plunge in, plausibly in order

> to correct the other person or to make assertions about

> "what I really meant ...." and the like.

>

>

[Guest guest]

Namaste Srdharji!

 

I am delighted you liked the uoadeshas fronm the 24 upagurus of Lord

Dattatreya, the avadhoota.

 

yes!

 

Let Knowledge come from all directions

 

says

 

Rig Veda

 

AS our adi shankara bhagvadapada says in baja govindam stotra

 

satsangatve nissngatvam

nissangatve nirmohatvam

nirmohatve nishchalatattvam

nishcalatattve jiivanmuktih

>From Satsanga comes non-attachment, from non-attachment comes freedom

from delusion, which leads to self-settledness. From self-settledness

comes Jivan Mukti.

 

FURTHERMORE,

 

tvayi mayi chaanyatraiko vishhnuh

vyartham kupyasi mayyasahishhnuh

bhava samachittah sarvatra tvam

vaajnchhasyachiraadyadi vishhnutvam

 

In me, in you and in everything, none but the same Vishnu dwells.

Your anger and impatience is meaningless. If you wish to attain the

quality of Vishnu soon, have Sama Bhaava always.

 

AND FINALLY,

 

 

shatrau mitre putre bandhau

maa kuru yatnam vigrahasandhau

sarvasminnapi pashyaatmaanam

sarvatrotsrija bhedaagyaanam

 

Do not waste your efforts to win the love of or to fight against

friend and foe, children and relatives. See yourself in everyone and

give up all feelings of duality completely.

 

well, professorji - I will surely miss him. He was like a 'bhisma'

pitamaha in my group (sadhana_shakti)guiding us all , always

maintaing a low profile but at the sametime ever ready to help out

with questions . He is a JEWEL among men.

 

Pranaams !