Our Language is but a Broken Lamp... ......

[Guest guest]

Dear all :

 

After reading all the posts surrounding the definition of the

term 'bAdhA' , i was thinking is it really necessary to know

Samskritam to apprciate the great phlosophy of Advaita ?

Is 'ADVAITA' NOT A UNIVERSAL PHILOSOPHY ? Is it only a monopoly of

the sanskrit knowing populace of the world ?

 

The Tantras use what is called 'Sandhya Bhasha ' or Twlight language

which acannot be understood by ordinary persons who are not

inintiated into Tantra. The Sandhya bhasha was a 'code language used

by TANTRICS AND TANTRIC TEXTS TO CONCEAL THE TEXTS FROM OUTSIDERS' ,

IN THOSE DAYS , WAS A ZEALOUSLY GUARDED SECRET and was

considereda 'gupta rahasya' ( not revealed to those who were not

initiated into this esoteric / erotic science).In fact , if you read

the early Bengali literature of Charyapada poets etc , you can

never make 'head or tail' out of it !These poets made generous use

of metaphors and similes to illustrate Tantric Mysticism ! Any

ordinary person reading these poems will not only be 'disgusted' but

will think WE hindus ae mistaking 'eroticism' for mysticism ' - It

takes a discerning eye/ discriminating intellect to understand the

mysticism behind the Sandhya Bhasha of these 'erotic' sounding

poems ! We should be grateful to Western scholars and poets like

Andrew Schelling who have made an honest attempt to understand the

mystery of Sanskrit language .... In fact , Schilling states he was

inspired by Thoreau who had the largest collection of Sanskrit

literature in his library!

 

What is true of Sandhya bhasha od the Tantrik texts is also true of

TAMIZH SIDDHA LITERATURE I pride myself on being a 'tamilian' and

fairly fluent in the English language , but i cannot understand let

alone comprehend the great Siddha literature ! Everything is 'Greek

and Latin' to me ! wHY SO ? tHIS IS BEACAUSE THERE ARE TWO WAYS IN

WHICH YOU CAN INTERPRET A SIDDHA POEM - ONE IS AT THE LINGUISTIC

LEVEL AND THE OTHER IS A METAPHYSICAL LEVEL ! Tantriks called

this 'Sandhya bhasha ' and Siddhhas called this 'sunya sambhasanai'

 

Guys , try reading SIDDHA Saint Thirumoolar's poems ! Similarly try

reading Tantrk poet Kanupada's poems ! You will never be able to

understand the underlying Mysticism in those 'exotic ' poems

bordering on Eroticism!

 

And to make a long story short , most of the literature on Advaita (

specially Adi shankara bhagvadapada and others) is in Samskritam !

How are we to understand leave alone comprehend this great

philosophy without the help of Sanskrit scholars who are fluent both

in Samskritam and English ? There lies the paradox ......

 

so , Eloitt says .... " our language is but a broken lamp "

 

AND a language cannot be seperated from its culture and customs

also ! we all knew how the innocent verse 2 from Vivekachudamani

produced so much Heat and Light!

 

" An idea does not pass from one language to another without change. "

 

so guys . let this controversy on the Word 'bAdhA' ( SUBLATION/

nullification/ refutation ) be a 'badha' ( hindrance or obstacle)

to the learning of Advaita ! We are grateful to OUR BELOVED

ENGLISHMAN for undertaking this nob;e task of Spreading Advaita to

the rest of the world ? After all , what is there init for Dennisji

except 'soul' satisfaction ---- as you know , Writers never make any

money specially writing books on Advaita!

 

love and regards