Swami Shankarananda

[Vrindavan]

 

http://swamishankarananda.blogspot.com/2007/08/guru-pournami.html

 

http://swamishankarananda.blogspot.com/2007/08/swami-shankarananda-lineage.html

 

Swami Shankarananda

 

Do you know this teacher ?

[theist]

Just another impersonalist.

[indulekhadasi]

 

Just another impersonalist.

 

Yup, that is for sure. First, people were misusing the Vedic literatures and they resorted to violence. So then Krishna's incarnation, the Budha avatar, came to earth to preach sunyavada, the concept that everything is 0. Then to fix that problem, on Lord Krishna's orders, Lord Siva incarnated as Sankaracharya to preach mayavada, that everything is 1. Then Ramanujacharaya came to smash the concept of the mayavadis, and finally Madhavacharya came to preach achintya bheda abheda tattva. It might have took some time to reach the right conclusion but we can derive good principles that were taught even by Sankaracharya. When Sankaracharya was leaving the world, he gave us a good instruction:

 

bhaja govindam bhaja govindam

bhaja govindam mudhamate

samprapte sannihite kale

na hi na hi raksati dukrntanaye

[indulekhadasi]

It is unfortunate that followers of Sankaracharya, such as this mayavadi do not follow this last instruction of Sankaracharya. If they hold Sankaracharya in such respect they should also hold his instructions with great respect and follow them.

[Vrindavan]

>> bhaja govindam bhaja govindam

bhaja govindam mudhamate

samprapte sannihite kale

na hi na hi raksati dukrntanaye

translation please

 

Is that it is not easy/clear to differentiate impersonalists to personalists sometimes ? crossover ? What are the clues ? Thanks so much

[indulekhadasi]

 

>> bhaja govindam bhaja govindam

bhaja govindam mudhamate

samprapte sannihite kale

na hi na hi raksati dukrntanaye

 

translation please

 

Is that it is not easy/clear to differentiate impersonalists to personalists sometimes ? crossover ? What are the clues ? Thanks so much

 

Translation:

Worship Govinda, worship Govinda,

Worship Govinda, foolish one!

Rules of grammar profit nothing

Once the hour of death draws nigh.

 

Definition: The impersonalists don't accept individuality as real or eternal. They say ultimately everything is one and our individual existence is an illusion... They don't accept any supreme person or God. They say I and the supreme are one...

[shvu]

 

Just another impersonalist.

 

Out of curiosity, is impersonalist an english word? I do not find it in any of the dictionaries I have access to. If it is not found in dictionaries, how do we know what it means and how do we know this Swami is an impersonalist? He talks about Bhakit yoga, etc., and has no relation to Shankara's school.

 

Cheers

[Guruvani]

 

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</td> <td colspan="7" width="367"> Swami Shankarananda

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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td width="435"> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="435"> <tbody><tr> <td> About Swamiji

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Swamiji with parents

Brooklyn New York, 1947.

 

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="435"> <tbody><tr> <td> Swami Shankarananda Saraswati (Swamiji) is a meditation master in the powerful spiritual tradition of Kashmir Shaivism. This ancient yoga, which Swamiji calls Shiva Yoga, has been transmitted from master to student for thousands of years.

Swami Shankarananda grew up in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, New York, the son of a well-known artist-cartoonist father and a high school teacher mother. A brilliant student, he played on the national championship chess team at Columbia University and became a United States chess master. He also received many academic awards, leading to an academic career and a teaching position at Indiana University, where he taught English literature and Renaissance poetry.

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Ganeshpuri, India

 

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="435"> <tbody><tr> <td> Journey to India

In 1970, after meeting the American guru Ram Dass, Swamiji travelled to India, where he met many saints and stayed at the ashrams of many yogis. He practised Buddhist Vipassana meditation with Master Goenka, and hatha and raja yoga with Hari Das Baba. He spent time with Neem Karoli Baba, the great woman saint, Anandamayi Ma, and Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj.

He also met one of India's leading spiritual masters, Swami Muktananda Paramahamsa, affectionately known as Baba, and lived at his ashram in Ganeshpuri, India, for three years. Swamiji was so impressed by Baba's talks on Shaivism, he collected and edited Baba's writings into a book, Siddha Meditation. Swamiji's groundbreaking essay introduced Baba's interpretation of Shaivism to the Western reading public. Later, Swamiji was invited to give the inaugural talk on Kashmir Shaivism at a significant month-long retreat with Muktananda in Arcata, California, 1975.

The leading contemporary sage in the tradition of Kashmir Shaivism, Muktananda also possessed the power of shaktipat, described in Shaivism, in which a seeker can be spiritually awakened directly by touch, look, word or thought. Swamiji had a series of extraordinary experiences based on Baba's shaktipat, culminating eventually in Self-realization, the ultimate achievement in yoga.

A few years later, the Mahamandaleshwar Brahmananda Giri initiated Swamiji into the ancient Saraswati order of monks. He was given the title Swami, which means teacher, an honour bestowed upon few Westerners. He was also given the name Shankarananda, which means, "the bliss of Shiva," or "bliss maker."

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Swamiji giving shaktipat

 

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="435"> <tbody><tr> <td> Western Guru

In 1974 Baba instructed Swamiji in the method of shaktipat, spiritual initiation, and told him to awaken seekers and teach independently. At that time Baba wrote, "He [shankarananda] has the power to make people experience the divine presence."

Swamiji established the first American ashram of his tradition in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He founded the Siddha Path magazine in 1975 and for many years was its editor. He has written numerous articles on spiritual topics including a book of aphorisms, Voice of the Self. His book, Muktananda Siddha Guru, a lucid introduction to the teachings of Swami Muktananda, has been translated into German, Spanish and French. In 1986 Swamiji created the Shiva Institute in Los Angeles. During his period in Los Angeles he expanded his work in the field of meditation and developed the Shiva Process, a practical application of enlightened life in the world based on Kashmir Shaivism.

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</td> </tr> </tbody></table> Swamiji

 

</td> </tr> </tbody></table> </td> <td> <table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" width="435"> <tbody><tr> <td> Teaching With Laughter and Love

In 1990, Swami Shankarananda was invited to tour Australia by a group of students. They established the Shiva Meditation Centres, Australia, and invited him to stay and teach. A beautiful permanent residence, the Shiva Ashram, was founded in 1996 in Mt. Eliza on the Mornington Peninsula, forty-five minutes south of Melbourne. In a short time it has become a popular and flourishing spiritual community attracting local and international visitors and students.

Swamiji is one of the world's leading exponents of Kashmir Shaivism. He approaches this great philosophy from the perspective of a practical yogi. He often works from the classical texts of Kashmir Shaivism such as the Shiva Sutras, the Pratyabhijnahridayam and the writings of Abhinavagupta. He also draws on traditional sources including the Upanishads, the Tantras and the teachings of Patanjali, Shankaracharya, the Buddha, Jesus and the Hassidic masters. Among modern teachers, he refers to Nisargadatta, Ananda Mayi Ma, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Gurdjieff, Maurice Nicoll, P.D. Ouspensky, Sri Ramakrishna and of course, Swami Muktananda.

Swamiji has toured the United States, Canada and India conducting meditation courses and workshops. He has spoken to a wide range of audiences including politicians, police officers, doctors, lawyers, firefighters, homemakers and college and university students. He has been the director of ashrams in Los Angeles, New York City and Melbourne, Australia. With a sharp intellect accompanied by a warmth, humour, wisdom and empathy that endear him to all, Swamiji is well loved for his extraordinary gift of making the mundane joyful.

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[Guruvani]

What do YOU think?

Is he a Vaishnava or a Mayavadi (impersonalist)?

[Vrindavan]

Two Swami Shankarananda(s) here ??

[theist]

 

Out of curiosity, is impersonalist an english word? I do not find it in any of the dictionaries I have access to. If it is not found in dictionaries, how do we know what it means and how do we know this Swami is an impersonalist? He talks about Bhakit yoga, etc., and has no relation to Shankara's school.

 

Cheers

 

You know this shvu. A personalist holds that the ultimate realization of God is that He is an individual and supreme person. An impersonalist is someone who holds that beyond the personal realization there is either voidism as in Buddhist teachings or formless and impersonal Brahman realization.

 

I know he is an impersonalist simply from seeing that he is in line from Paramahansa Yogananda and Sri Yuktesvar who are impersonalists. Yogananda also talked in terms of Bhakti while holding Sankaras view on the nature of God as impersonal Brahman. They do that pseudo devotional dance for the benefit of their "less advanced followers who need to conceive of God as a person other themselves because they have yet to realize that they themselves are God." You know, worship God until you merge into Him and realize you are Him. THIS IS NOT BHAKTI even though they sometimes call themselves vaisnavas and say they love Krsna or Rama or Vishnu or Allah or Jehovah or Shiva or Durga whatever you want to call it.

They mask their impersonalism in such ways and in this way are even more dangerous then ordinary atheists. More jewel headed cobras.

 

Vaisnavas do not hear from these types even though it can be admitted they may be very advanced souls with many wonderful qualities like renounciation, wisdom, care for others etc. I have heard Srila Prabhupada once said Sri Yuktesvar ( Yogananda's guru) was a very beautiful person.

[theist]

 

What do YOU think?

Is he a Vaishnava or a Mayavadi (impersonalist)?

 

Impersonalist. Didn't read what was written by I see a picture of Muktananda displayed as he speaks and that says enough for me.

[theist]

 

Two Swami Shankarananda(s) here ??

 

Yes two. Common enough name.

[passionate_freak]

No matter what all such masters are here to perform their part. N they do it as they have been told by their Gurus or as been ordered from the place where they exactly belong to.

It's upon us what we say and accept of them.

Some may love Krsn, some buddha and so on.

 

But the main thing is,

they all got the realization of the truth, and how we are going to get it???

 

Definitely not by singing hymns and Bhahans. Followers remain followers only, forever, I'm not talking about the various incarnations.

And we gotta remember that few sadhanas and Mantra Japa too never gonna land us on the super counsciousness. For it we need more severe sadhanas. One with the - do or die- philosophy only would reach for that.

But Bhajans and kinda stuffs are mostly needed at our time, because such singing and dancing can somehow shake our Kundalini.

[theist]

 

But Bhajans and kinda stuffs are mostly needed at our time, because such singing and dancing can somehow shake our Kundalini.

 

 

"Shake shake shake...shake your booty."

 

We don't chant and dance to shake our booties or our kundalini's.We chant to become purified our of mundane desires and to come to the platform of chanting to please Krsna solely. Chanting is the means and the end goal.

 

 

In this kali yuga the age of quarrel and confusion there is no other way no other way, no other way than the chanting of the Holy Name for God realization.

 

Hare Krsna