Fwd: Message not approved: Use of Advaita in practical spiritual effort

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advaitin , Ganesan Sankarraman <shnkaran

wrote:

 

 

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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