Fwd: When to renounce : None come to the Father except thro. me

[Guest guest]

advaitin , " V. Krishnamurthy " <profvk>

wrote:

Namaste. Reid –ji and all,

 

This is in reply to your well-worded legitimate questions raised in

 

http://www.escribe.com/culture/advaitin/m25888.html

 

where you said

" .. But my understanding of nonduality seems to run

> counter to your descriptions of what is required for the

householder,

> viz. that what must be done to achieve dispassion is only thru

> devotion to the divine. It seems to me that this flouts the idea

> of " not two " and must therefore be seen as merely an impediment to

> true understanding. This seems also to me to be awfully close to

the

> Christian teaching that " None come to the Father but thru

me " .Clearly

> these expressions of exclusivity are familiar to many traditions,

> yet, I am awaiting the message that there are no paths to truth as

> there is no destination at all. .. How can the belief in and

> practice of any religious tradition be any thing more than a

> temporary (although perhaps necessary for many) distraction from

> apperceiving the ultimate reality? > Thank you for your time. "

Reid

-------------------------------

 

" None come to the Father but through me. "

This quote is from John 14. It is a beautiful quote to illustrate

advaita-bhakti.

Jesus said: " I am the way, the truth, and the life. " (Ibid). Krishna

also says the same thing : mattaH paraM nAsti(B.G. VII – 7),

sadasaccAhamarjuna (IX – 19), jIvanaM sarvabhUteshhu (VII – 9),

ahamAdishca madhyam ca (X – 20), etc.

 

" None come to the Father but through me. "

This `me' actually has to be capitalised here as `Me', because the

Son of God says it. So it becomes

" None come to the Father but through Me. "

 

Krishna's statement also can be taken to read

`None come to Brahman but through Me'.

This means `you cannot reach Brahman-realisation, except by devotion

through Me'.

 

This is not an `expression of exclusivity'. It only means that `God

is not just the end but also the means toward that end.'

 

In fact Jesus also means that `I am the means' when he says

" I am the Father and the Father is in me. The words I say are not my

own but my Father who lives in me does his work through me. Just

beleive that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. " (John 14)

 

Beleief in and practice of a religious tradition is not just a

temporary pastime or distraction as you seem to put it, Reid-ji. It

is the only path to perceive and realise the ultimate reality.

 

Here it is necessary to clear some cobwebs of misunderstanding

regarding advaita. Advaita is not an atheistic philosophy. It does

not deny God. It only says there is something more than `God with a

form and a name'. And that is the nameless and formless Ultimate

One. The means for advaitic realisation is not to sit quiet without

doing anything. To worship God for the purification of one's mind,

is quite in tune with advaita; because without purification of

mind, how is one going to realise that `I am not the BMI'? So when

somebody says the worship of God with attributes is the only way to

purify one's mind, that statement need not be contradicted. What

else is there as a method to purify the mind?

 

By simply repeating to oneself `I am not the BMI', one is not going

to reach self-realisation. Nididhyasana on vedic mahavakyas, means

that one churns in one's mind the logic of spirituality embedded in

these mahavakyas. In order that the mind cooperates with this

effort of the sadhaka, it has to be purified. And how do you purify

the mind, except by withdrawing it from all sense objects and sense

attractions? And how do you so withdraw the mind, except

by `attaching' it to something as divine as God with name and form.

Any other `attachment' is going to be only a worldly attachment. If

worldly attachments have to go, the only way is to attach yourself

to God so firmly and so consistently that thereafter no other

attachment arises. Then God takes the responsibility to take you to

that Realisation of the Ultimate.

 

Thus `None come to the Father but through Me' turns out to be a

crisp mahavakya of advaita bhakti. Advaita bhakti means devotion of

the One God, without a second, without a distraction. If that

itself is called `distraction', then there is no other royal road to

purification of mind.

 

PraNAms to all advaitins.

profvk

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