Message not approved: Use of Advaita in practical spiritual effort

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Ganesan Sankarraman <shnkaran > wrote:

  List Moderator's Note: Instead of just making a one-liner, it will be greatly beneficial if you explain as completely as possible. The orginal post by Sri Suri should not have been released to the list, that was just a slip. Those who have background in economics may be aware about 'utility theory' which explains human behavior. In the present context, advaita philosophy should be considered as a useful tool for understanding human salvation. Just like the pole-vault example, the philsophy is useful for salvation but it needs to be left out after salvation! The 'tiger' that pounces on during the dream becomes responsible for us to get awakened from the dream, and when we get awakened, the tiger and the entire episode of the dream also disappears! The non-existent 'tiger' was quite essential for the awakening the utility of Advaita philosophy is very subtle!

 

  ( Some howlers creep in somehow in spite of my copying it from the note-pad or word processor. I don't know how. These are not spelling mistakes attributable to wrong strokes, but traceable to some defect in the computer which I am getting rectified. Please bear with me. )

 

From

          Sankarraman

Yes, I understand, at least intellectually, the fact of the dream phenomenon of terror making a man wake up from the nightmare. But, I have not awakened to the fact of the entire life constituting a pain by virtue of the continuous state of flux of the gunas, and no one state, in the relative existence, abiding even for a moment. Great men like the Buddha and Bhaghvan Ramana saw instantly the fact of the unreality and pain of the duality of life, constantly shadowed by the fear of death. When advaita is found to be the only solace, I was pained to see the gentleman’s branding it as a mere tool for remaining in duality. It is the other way about. The unreal knowledge of duality, conceiving non-duality, might usher in advaitic wisom. The painful irony made me state that advaita could not be a utilitarian concept at all, but a liberating knowledge. I felt that to use the word utility, in relation to advaita, was somewhat worldly, and smacked of duality. Hence my declaration

of it as suicidal. There is a beautiful verse in Ribugita which runs as follows: “Whatever mighty learning you might have acquired, my son, nothing other than the flawless knowledge of non-duality shall liberate you from the frightening dream of this samsara.†The perception of this basic existential dread, the feeling of alienation, not relating the fear towards objects, but to the basic sense of isolation and loneliness of the individual in the present predicament of duality,  alone liberates him.. I thought the word utility was very worldly in being used to refer to such an exalted natural state like advaita, which is not the outcome of effort.. Bhaghavan Ramana says in a place that a lot of efforts are required only in sustaining thoughts, whereas to be, no effort is required. It is on account of inattention, avichara, that we confound this duality, requiring a lot of effort to be maintained, to be real. Advaita is not a tool for enabling man to remain in unreal

duality, but is a tool, in a way, as you say, like the dream tiger, to awaken beings from the nightmare of duality. Thayumanavar in a verse says: “When shall the day come, when one finds oneself at the feet of the knower of truth, who always abides in the holy knowledge of advaita, which is not known by the seers of false duality?" The term, "Knower of truth," here refers to saint Meikandar, the author of the great Siddhantha classic, Sivagnanabodham; some interpret it to refer to the mouna guru, who initiated Thayumanavar into the silent knowledge of advaita. Saint Thiruvarutprakasa Vallalar ( Ramalinga Swamygal) says in a verse: “Is it to-day or tomorrow, or in the yonder unknown period in the unrolling of the eternal time, when shall it come, I do not know, the bliss of effortlessness (Summa irukkum sugam), that bliss which transcends the empty space of the mind.†Again, Thayumanavar recounts a dream he had: “I had a dream in which this whole world of Maya

became dead.†Saint Kripanandavariyar while extolling the greatness of Thaymanavar says that we should pray to the Lord to get such a dream. Hence, it is possible through the knowledge of the unreal dream to come upon the true knowledge of advaita. Krishnapremi asks Nityanandagiri as to how could one dismiss the world of waking state powerfully presented by the senses and cognized by the mind as unreal. Nityanandagiri, in a very simple and elegant way, says that a wishful thinking came to his mind whether this sorrow-producing world would somehow be found to be a figment of one’s imagination. There is an account of the prime deity of Thiruvidaimarudhur, very much hallowed by saints Pattinathar and Bathragiriyar, having made a divine oracle, a divine voice being heard saying, “Advaita is alone real, Advaita is alone real; Dvaita is a total falsehood.†In all our unformulated intuitions we have the feeling of true happiness being traceable to non-duality alone. Even

the atheistic existential philosopher, Jean-Paul-Sartre, being stung by anxiety, and, nausea, traceable to this existence, stumbled on this truth in an unconscious way, having made a powerful existential revelation in his declaration, “The other is a hell.†J.Krishnamurthy while talking about the dimension of the sacred- Krishnamurthy uses the word creation- his last talk in Madras being confined entirely to this- says that there is no one to experience it, as it is beyond the dimensions of experiencer-experienced duality. All the great mahatmas have hankered only after this knowledge, which destroys all trace of individuality, which is an error and illusion.

            

-with warm regards

Sankarraman--------------------------------

  

 

           

 

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