Thanks to all

[Guest guest]

Thank you for your wise and insightful words Frankji and Sadaji and

Ramji...Moorthyji, Madhavji, well I could go on and on and on. Perhaps we

should express gratitude more often for company like this which pervades our

mental atmosphere. Bowing to all who read this on all lists.

Namaste................................Harsha

 

Sri Frank Ji of the advaitin list: hariH OM! friends,

 

from the advaitin point of view, witnessing

philosophic debates has value insofar as its

affording the opportunity to learn, not from

the ideas, per se, but rather their implication

in the wider context of what drives the mind in

its need to relatively know. of course this

brand of knowing is the polar opposite of the

knowing implied in jnana, which is the noumenal

[viz. beyond the phenomenal].

 

in approaching any of these classic debates:

first we have the matter of semantics with words,

then semantics with ideas, and finally we involve

ourselves with the wild goose chase of philosophical

speculation, with the ulterior mission of securing

a hands-on knowledge of 'what's what.'

 

and this pursuit for a 'hands-on knowledge of

what's what' is precisely where we're making

our biggest mistake. because the answer we

seek is not amenable to reason or relativity.

 

we should never lose sight of the fact that

the goal, not only of advaita but dvaita and

visisthadvaita, is to stop the mind from plaguing

[and thereby reinforcing] the illusion of the

separative-bound jiva. of course this sounds

impossible, simply because it *is* impossible!

nevertheless our charge is to extricate such

hypnotic delusion--which is afterall accomplished

by the simplest means, sooner or later, in the

course of our 'pathless path.'

 

although the three methods differ in their

approach to accomplish this destruction of the

[philosophical] Mind, their goal is the same.

and it merely depends on the temperament of the

individual, as to which method is chosen. the

tyagi who can truly renounce the fruit of his/her

actions, the bhakta who can truly sacrifice his

jiva to isvara, or the jnanayogin who can truly

realize that brahman is the lone reality, *all*

become jivanmuktas in the end, all become One in

parabrahmam.

 

in fact, we are *already* That.

 

OM ramanarpanamastu!