Stages on a single path

[Guest guest]

Dear Holy Family,

 

In India, to be an acharya, a great spiritual savant, and to qualify

to expound the scriptures, it has been traditional, and manditory, to

write a spiritual commentary on each of the three great treasures of

Indian wisdom, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma sutras, and the Upanisads.

 

For centuries now the three authoritative acharyas, which have come to

be the accepted and final spokesmen for what all the scriptures really

say, are: Madhva-acharya, who maintains that all the scriptures teach

"dvaita" or dualism - ie, that God and the Soul are eternally separate

and different in substance or quality; Ramanuja-acharya, who

interprets every scriptual line as teaching Vashishta-advaita,or

qualified non-dualism - ie,that God and the Soul are basically of the

same substance, but differ infinitely is magnitude, similar to a fire

and the sparks flying out of it, or to the ocean and the drops of

spray; and, lastly, Shankara-acharya, the great exponent of Advaita or

non-dualism, which declares that God and the Soul are the same, that

Brahmajnana and Atmajnana are one and the same realization and Truth.

 

In India, these three systems have existed in watertight compartments,

and the polarization has been extreme.

 

It has always seemed highly evokative to me that the traditional forms

of each of the acharyas in statue and painting show Madhva, who has to

work by far the hardest, in order to twist all the Hindu scriptures

into a uniformly dualistic interpretation, is portrayed as a huge

gentleman, with bulging muscles, like a sumo wrestler. Ramanuja, who

has an easier time of it, that is, he doesn't have to torture the

texts quiet as much, is pictured as of normal stature; while Shankara,

who has the easiest job, because more of the scriptures are advaitic

than not, is always shown as a wispy young boy.

 

These murties of the great acharyas are perhaps also, albeit it

unconsciously, indicating that Madva's interpretation is perhaps the

grossest, Ramanaja's subtler, and Shankara's the most subtle. In the

gross universe, everything is separate, matter can't occupy the same

space as other matter; in the subtle, sukshma, realm, things merge

more easily, and in that most subtle, transcendental Reality, all is One.

 

Be that as it may, read by themselves, the Indian scriptures, the

Sanatana Dharma, contain statements and teachings expressing each of

these points of view.

 

Nevertheless, India has been fighting - and I mean fighting - over who

is right for centuries, and the sheer waste of it all is a great loss.

 

I really shudder to think that these battles might be transferred to

the West where we are a lot more serious about fighting than India has

been---and it need not be.

 

Swami Vivekananda, was deputed to carry his great Guru's message to

the world at large by Sri Ramakrishna Himself, who touched Narendra

(S.V.) at the end of His life, and said that He had thus transferred

all His power to Him and that He was Himself now just a simple fakir

(mendicant), and that, with that immense power, Vivekananda "would do

great good to the world", and that "Narendra will teach others"

 

At one point in his teaching work, Vivekananda received a letter from

a devotee asking about the three interpretations of Reality, expounded

by the traditional Acharyas, and in his answer Vivekananda made one of

the most revealing statements about his teaching work that we have on

record.

 

He said that when one begins spiritual life, one is materialistic in

orientation, and naturally, and inevitably, thinks of God as separate,

and distant from oneself. As one progresses, one's understanding

becomes more purified, and one then thinks that the soul is of the

same divine substance as God, only infinitely smaller and distant. But

as one continues to progress, one reaches a point of profound

realization: that God and the Soul are one, and of the same Essence,

Reality and Truth.

 

Swami Vivekananda continued on to say that each of these points of

view are natural stages through which everyone must pass on the single

path to the Truth. He further said that "It was left to me (by his

guru Sri Ramakrishna) to teach this Truth to the world".

 

It is my sincere and heartfelt prayer that we may all come to

understand this great teaching, that we are all works in progress,

that no-one is a finished product; that not one of us is able to make

a statement of final truth about God or the Soul, and thereby judge

another, be he far ahead of us, or far behind; that we are all

sojourners, albeit each at different points on the single path to God.

 

With profound love to each one who has taken up this greatest work

that any human being can pursue,

 

Tanmaya

[Guest guest]

, "ty_maa" <ds.james wrote:

>Belated response to your sharing of this wisdom, Tanmayananda- Thank You!-

Gautam

>

> Dear Holy Family,

>

> In India, to be an acharya, a great spiritual savant, and to qualify

> to expound the scriptures, it has been traditional, and manditory, to

> write a spiritual commentary on each of the three great treasures of

> Indian wisdom, the Bhagavad Gita, the Brahma sutras, and the Upanisads.

>

> For centuries now the three authoritative acharyas, which have come to

> be the accepted and final spokesmen for what all the scriptures really

> say, are: Madhva-acharya, who maintains that all the scriptures teach

> "dvaita" or dualism - ie, that God and the Soul are eternally separate

> and different in substance or quality; Ramanuja-acharya, who

> interprets every scriptual line as teaching Vashishta-advaita,or

> qualified non-dualism - ie,that God and the Soul are basically of the

> same substance, but differ infinitely is magnitude, similar to a fire

> and the sparks flying out of it, or to the ocean and the drops of

> spray; and, lastly, Shankara-acharya, the great exponent of Advaita or

> non-dualism, which declares that God and the Soul are the same, that

> Brahmajnana and Atmajnana are one and the same realization and Truth.

>

> In India, these three systems have existed in watertight compartments,

> and the polarization has been extreme.

>

> It has always seemed highly evokative to me that the traditional forms

> of each of the acharyas in statue and painting show Madhva, who has to

> work by far the hardest, in order to twist all the Hindu scriptures

> into a uniformly dualistic interpretation, is portrayed as a huge

> gentleman, with bulging muscles, like a sumo wrestler. Ramanuja, who

> has an easier time of it, that is, he doesn't have to torture the

> texts quiet as much, is pictured as of normal stature; while Shankara,

> who has the easiest job, because more of the scriptures are advaitic

> than not, is always shown as a wispy young boy.

>

> These murties of the great acharyas are perhaps also, albeit it

> unconsciously, indicating that Madva's interpretation is perhaps the

> grossest, Ramanaja's subtler, and Shankara's the most subtle. In the

> gross universe, everything is separate, matter can't occupy the same

> space as other matter; in the subtle, sukshma, realm, things merge

> more easily, and in that most subtle, transcendental Reality, all is One.

>

> Be that as it may, read by themselves, the Indian scriptures, the

> Sanatana Dharma, contain statements and teachings expressing each of

> these points of view.

>

> Nevertheless, India has been fighting - and I mean fighting - over who

> is right for centuries, and the sheer waste of it all is a great loss.

>

> I really shudder to think that these battles might be transferred to

> the West where we are a lot more serious about fighting than India has

> been---and it need not be.

>

> Swami Vivekananda, was deputed to carry his great Guru's message to

> the world at large by Sri Ramakrishna Himself, who touched Narendra

> (S.V.) at the end of His life, and said that He had thus transferred

> all His power to Him and that He was Himself now just a simple fakir

> (mendicant), and that, with that immense power, Vivekananda "would do

> great good to the world", and that "Narendra will teach others"

>

> At one point in his teaching work, Vivekananda received a letter from

> a devotee asking about the three interpretations of Reality, expounded

> by the traditional Acharyas, and in his answer Vivekananda made one of

> the most revealing statements about his teaching work that we have on

> record.

>

> He said that when one begins spiritual life, one is materialistic in

> orientation, and naturally, and inevitably, thinks of God as separate,

> and distant from oneself. As one progresses, one's understanding

> becomes more purified, and one then thinks that the soul is of the

> same divine substance as God, only infinitely smaller and distant. But

> as one continues to progress, one reaches a point of profound

> realization: that God and the Soul are one, and of the same Essence,

> Reality and Truth.

>

> Swami Vivekananda continued on to say that each of these points of

> view are natural stages through which everyone must pass on the single

> path to the Truth. He further said that "It was left to me (by his

> guru Sri Ramakrishna) to teach this Truth to the world".

>

> It is my sincere and heartfelt prayer that we may all come to

> understand this great teaching, that we are all works in progress,

> that no-one is a finished product; that not one of us is able to make

> a statement of final truth about God or the Soul, and thereby judge

> another, be he far ahead of us, or far behind; that we are all

> sojourners, albeit each at different points on the single path to God.

>

> With profound love to each one who has taken up this greatest work

> that any human being can pursue,

>

> Tanmaya

>