Summary

[Guest guest]

Sometimes when responding to individual posts in the thread, the

focus on the topic can be lost.

 

The main issue for the last couple of posts is this.

 

" If one sincerely does sandhyA, gAyatrI upAsana, no other upAsana is

required "

 

From my side, all I wanted to say is that, such statements can be

found for many mantra-s.

ex: The shiva purANa, shaiva Agama-s, agni purANa and others say

shiva pa~nchAkShari is enough and nothing else is required.

Likewise the vaiShNava purANa-s, for vaiShNava mantra-s.

They just dont stop at that but go to some lengths and discuss the

meanings of those mantra-s to validate those claims.

 

This is all is being said. Atleast from my side there is no claim of

superiority of any system. Hopefully my position is clear.

 

I made all effort I can, to consistently express this position in the

last few posts.

 

Other's experiences: To Shri Kumar and Sriram

 

When i say I dont rely on stories to understand any shastra, I see

how this can be taken to mean being disrespectful.

 

Personal anecdotes are subjective and more often not they get

exaggerrated(not out of any malice but due to nature of

transmission/communication itself) a bit. They may be used for one's

own understanding and strengthening of faith, but outside that

personal sphere they may not have any meaning.

 

Ex: A person x may have an experience y and this y can be a sign of

siddhi of prolonged upAsana or could be a sign of the devata being

pleased with him/her. For a different person the same experience y

may not mean anything.

 

It is with this background that I said I dont rely on stories to

understand any shastra. Being objective can be a very different

thing from being intolerant. I hope that is clear.

[Guest guest]

shrI gurubhyo namaH

 

Dear Shri Satish:

 

You are a long-time contributor to this site. I personally have not seen

anything disrespectful from you. I want to commend you for that. However, that

is not true of all members of this site.

 

For my part, I do try to educate myself on the subject matters in this site. I

also try to contribute constructively.

Case in point is my conversation with this group on the subject of bAlA being a

qualification for LS pArAyaNam.

I think I discussed my points and we arrived at a conclusion that this group

agreed on.

 

At the end of this discussion, however, the original poster found his path, and

decided to follow his Guru.

That, in my opinion, was constructive.

 

There are, however, some other posts. Without quoting specifics, I want to say

that there have been posts that spoke derisively of one or more of the Shankara

Mathaadhipathis, Ananandamayi Maa, and Shri BhaskararAya. These posts have even

evoked angry responses from others. Some of these posts have caused others to be

silenced and / or leave the site.

 

That , in my opinion, is hurtful, and destructive.

 

Every member should decide how he or she wants to contribute.

 

Thanks and Regards.

KR.

 

shrI mAtre namaH

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

My humble opinions in this context:

 

I am touching any personal or individual issues.

Rather,I have always been learning and obtaining

deeper meanings everytime discussions open up. Many

times I don't agree, sometimes they sound offending

but almost all the times the intentions behind are

non-malicious.

So, I take this as part of the adhyayana process.

 

I see some issues that lie undercurrent and this forum

is a sample of these issues prevalent among Sri vidya

upaasakas and other Mother devotees maybe over the

centuries

 

1. vedic and non-vedic (not to be confused with

antivedic) aspects of tantras, in particular Sri

Vidya.

 

2. conflicts between authority of Guru's words, one's

experience and intellectual perceptions not supported

by experience and thus incomplete.

 

3. mantras, devathas and protocols of worship and

practice

 

These 3 are highly contentious issues and prone to

lead the people away from the main purpose of sadhana

- Seeking. Many are the souls lost in the intellectual

gymnastics of scholarship-derived arguments. Many are

the souls that have been lost to obstinate adherence

to some practices even when given unasked advise and

warnings by other adepts in the path. Many are the

souls sunk in the waves of shortsighted and greedy

practice of mantra saadhana.

 

As a novice, non-scholarly, shortsighted, narrow

minded, not-rooted-in-hereditary-upaasana, observer

and reluctant participant of the forum for many years,

I have learned a lot of the 3 aspects listed above. I

don't remember the exchange of insults or derisive

comments and people responsible for that; what stays

in my mind are the good soundbites of this satsanga.

 

My plea is that: these matters are closer to heart and

precious than our own lives. It is natural to be

emotional lose control or self-discipline momentarily.

Let no one be discouraged away from the list as the

loss is for all the people concerned. At the same

time, obstinate and insensitive adherence to one's

viewpoint need to be corrected and transcended at some

level. It is a process and is not going to happen

abruptly.

 

Many are the issues discussed here need to be

" understood " more by experience and Her Grace rather

than by tharka and vivaadha of superficial nature.

 

I see here two or three schools of thoughts about #1:

relationship between vedas and tantras. These thoughts

have roots for many centuries and they are not going

to reconcile. Intellectual independence, free will of

an individual, ability to choose against a Guru's

dicta and established orthodoxy is an issue (#2) that

has always been since human mind woke of the dreary

sleep of instincts. Use and abuse of Mantra, worship

and practice of it of a Devathaa, prayoga etc. (#3)

can never be

encoded with in a set of rules. Hence, it is better

to understand there is always going to be discontent,

conflict and diff of opinions of all these three.

Hence beating one's own standpoint either by wasteful

arguments beyond a limit or via circular logic

is not going to help.

 

 

Let us all not forget that the Object of all these is

She who is Saamarasya paraayana - One who is

established in consensus and harmony..

 

-gopal

 

 

 

 

 

--- Kumar Ramachandran <kramach wrote:

 

> shrI gurubhyo namaH

>

> Dear Shri Satish:

>

> You are a long-time contributor to this site. I

> personally have not seen anything disrespectful from

> you. I want to commend you for that. However, that

> is not true of all members of this site.

>

> For my part, I do try to educate myself on the

> subject matters in this site. I also try to

> contribute constructively.

> Case in point is my conversation with this group on

> the subject of bAlA being a qualification for LS

> pArAyaNam.

> I think I discussed my points and we arrived at a

> conclusion that this group agreed on.

>

> At the end of this discussion, however, the original

> poster found his path, and decided to follow his

> Guru.

> That, in my opinion, was constructive.

>

> There are, however, some other posts. Without

> quoting specifics, I want to say that there have

> been posts that spoke derisively of one or more of

> the Shankara Mathaadhipathis, Ananandamayi Maa, and

> Shri BhaskararAya. These posts have even evoked

> angry responses from others. Some of these posts

> have caused others to be silenced and / or leave the

> site.

>

> That , in my opinion, is hurtful, and destructive.

>

> Every member should decide how he or she wants to

> contribute.

>

> Thanks and Regards.

> KR.

>

> shrI mAtre namaH

>

>

> [Non-text portions of this message have been

> removed]

>

>