Message from Sri Balaji Ramasubramanian

[Guest guest]

Dear Advaitins,

The following message has been received by me from Sri Balaji who

has requested it to be posted on the Advaitns Page for your kind

interest ....

"Meanwhile could you do me a small favor with respect to the group?

Could you please note some of this part in the advaitin group, for

others to just note. Not that I entirely beleive in its validity,

but I

respect it as a sure possibility. I don't know about this very much,

but I got this input from someone deeply involved with the present

Sringeri Acharyal, when he went to Sringeri recently. This is

regarding

the preface Adi Sankara and Sri Sureshwara to his Bhashya to the

Upanishads, where he states clearly that "only and only the

Upanishads,

can give direct knowledge."

 

When this gentleman asked the Jagadguru about this particular part of

it, he noted that sometime in the future, just like many Upanishads

were lost even in the past (We are left with only 108 of the

thousands)

there may be a time when no Upanishads would be heard of, let aone

its

bhashya. In that case, will no one be able to realize the supreme

truth?

 

To this question the Jagadguru responded somewhat like this:

(This pasrt was related to me and I am just saying it as I heard.

There

may be some lapses, but this may not be taken as a subject of

contention, for these statements are yet not confirmed to be those of

the Jagadguru himself)

 

When we say only and only the Upanishads, we mean the method of the

Upanishads, that is used for teaching the absolute truth. The

Upanishads give us direct knowledge, not because, by reading it we

would be enlightened, but by following its apophatic approach

of 'neti

neti' that a person ultimately becomes Samyak-sambuddha. The method

of

neti is referred to as Upanishad, since the only thing common about

all

the Upanishads is their apophatic approach. No specific Upanishad

therefore has any precedence.

 

If this were not true, then the words must have some special powers,

which if true, wold mean that if whichever Upanishad contains these

potent words, vanishes we are doomed and we will never be able to

realize the supreme.

 

Therefore, the apophatic approach of finding that which is not the

Self

and knowing it as not the Self is the only way to know the Self.

 

(This event was related to me when I posed this question to a

colleague.)

 

Balaji "

Warm regards to all

S. Mohan