On Huxley's Advaitic experience

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<Quote: msg 44211/ SNS/ March 23 > One may worship the supreme brahman in various forms such as shiva, viShNu, Rama, Krishna, Ganapati, etc. In fact one need not even be a Hindu to attain the advaitic experience. When westerners used to ask Kanchi paramacharya whether they should convert to Hinduism, he would tell them that they could remain in their own religion and practise advaita. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa proved that one could get the advaitic experience through Christianity and Islam also. There is a book by Aldous Huxley entitled " The Perennial Philosophy " in which he has shown that Christian saints and Muslim Sufis attained the same advaitic experience as the Indian Rishis. This being so, it would be too narrow a view to say that shakti worship is the only means to advaitic realization.

 

Hari OM~

Pranams Sri Sastri ji,

 

I must say that I am horrified by the above statements particularly because it is from your desk! All that you have said about Advaita is nothing more than the liberal pop-religio-socio-democratic tone that any reformer or a theosophist would prefer but definitely not by the Vaidikas. Advaita is strictly oriented towards Vedas which are confined to theological and philosophical affiliations which is essentially esoteric by nature. Aldous Huxley is certainly not an apta, for he is not entitled to estimate the Advaitic experience that is subjective. People like Huxley would even go to the extent to prescribe Quran ‘parayana’ during pradosa-kala and read Bible in Bhagavata saptaha. Such people may even design brand new ‘maha-vakya-s’ from ‘Allopanisad’ or ‘Jesu-sastra’! I see all this as fancy blend of confused so-called religious tendencies which falls under the banner of what I call pseudo-secularism.

                Let Huxley’s policies serve elsewhere but not here atleast in this sacred floor where we worship and celebrate the great Acarya like Bagavat-pada who insisted on eka-bhakti and ananya yoga in the Gita-bhasya.  Acarya declares his conviction thus ‘na anyo bhagavato Vasudeva paraH asti, ataH sa eva na gatiH’ – ‘there is non other than Lord Vasudeva (higher than him), He alone is our refuge’. Sankara interestingly marks ‘those who do not seek Vasudeva does not reach him; for the Lord thus envinces pity for such worshippers’ – ‘aho kashtataram vartate, ityanutrosam darsayati bhagavan’. When Krsna says in BG 18.65 ‘mam namaskuru’, Sankara in his commentary adds ‘namaskAram mam eva kuru’ – ‘worship Vasudeva alone’.

                Names and forms are not Vasudeva; for he is the transcendental reality. Names and forms exist due to Ajnana. Those who see Jesus and Allah are those who are deluded. They merely worship ignorance and nothing else. ‘Mudah’ says Krsna categorically. The so-called forms which find no place in Vedas are ‘asuri-s’ and are hallucinations of the mleccas who lack ‘daivi-sampat’.

                No wonder why Arjuna exclaimed, as Sankara puts it ’O devesa! Why do people not salute you? Why don’t they bow down unto you (Vasudeva) when you are the great soul? O! Lord you are the imperishable transcendence. You alone and none else’ – ‘paramartastu sadasato param aksaram – tvameva na anyat’.

 

With Narayana Smrti,

Devanathan.J