Help me to Understand Advaita

[Amrut]

This is a new example from Wiki, wonders never cease!





Take these passages from Wiki with a grain of salt, but they are usually good starting points:



I like this analogy. Clouds are a by-product of the sun's power. They are the sun's power at work.

Please do not trust wiki. It is unreliable. I do not read opinion of theosophists and westerners.

British East India co had setup Asiatic society with 34 members including Wilson, Jones, Bopp AND Max Mulller as their highly paid agents to demean our shastras.

Throughout the life they collected manuscripts and projected in a convoluted way. they corrupted our puranas like changing date of chandragupta maurya as a contemporary of Alexander. they changed grihya sutra, and some parts of vedas to attest meat eating. For the whole life they didnt write anything about christianity.

They forged fake coins to prove their theory of dating of Chandragupta maurya. They faked a new concept of Aryan invasion theory and also degraded status of sanskrit,. they invented another root language from which sanskrit derived it's words. they called it as 'proto-indo-euro-language'. when Narayan Shastry raised voice against them, they destroyed his 20 years of research. a year after Narayan Shastri died.

you can find this with authentic proofs, in the book
The True History and the Religion of India: A Concise Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism
H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

He was awarded title of dharma chakravarti.

Some articles are available online here.

though in the beginning you may find it boring, later on it is interesting.

Wiki page about Adi Shankara contains opinion of B.N.K. Sharma, a dvaitin and a pundit who has been honoured titles by dvaita matha. It goes without saying that B.N.K. Sharma does not like advaita and has spoken against it.

Please read commentaries by Adi shankara and then come to a conclusion. Vaishnavas will pick some words, twist them, as if they do not want to understand and then project them in not-so-good way. At times they interpret advaita from their siddhantic POV and come to a conclusion that advaita is illogical.

If you wish to understand siddhanta, then please understand it from authentic sources or sit at the feet of Guru. Google pramAna is not a pramaaNa

Thats why I do not much interfere into other sampradAyas.

Hari OM

 

[Jainarayan]

Please do not trust wiki. It is unreliable. I do not read opinion of theosophists and westerners.

That's why I say take it with a grain of salt. Even in checking the references and citations, one must be discriminating and discerning, and skeptical, leading to other research. Even the Buddha says in the Kalama Sutta, in a word, question everything and don't take it face value or just because it seems authentic.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Theosophy is not Hinduism. They have taken this idea from Buddha's Indra Jala. Why would there be beads and strings in Brahman?

I like this analogy. Clouds are a by-product of the sun's power. They are the sun's power at work.

I too like this analogy. Is the sun changed by presence of clouds?

 

[Aupmanyav]

I accept that our positions differ.

 

[Elector]

Pranams,

Personally, I think the best alternative here is to actually study the works of Shri Adi Shankaracharya with sincerity, receptivity, and patience

 

[Amrut]

That's why I say take it with a grain of salt. Even in checking the references and citations, one must be discriminating and discerning, and skeptical, leading to other research. Even the Buddha says in the Kalama Sutta, in a word, question everything and don't take it face value or just because it seems authentic.

Namaste,

The thing is that our intellect should be used in a way that it increases our devotion. The fact that we must have full faith in our shastras and our guru.

Being skeptical is not a solution. While not all westerners have hidden motives, some do have. Also note that meditation is extremely important. Certain things are not cleared even b shastras. They are only cleared by personal direct experience.

Advaita is connected with last stage of life (sanyAsa ASrama). As Adi SankarAcArya in his TAi. Up. 1/11 bhASya says satyam vada, dharmam cara meaning speak truth, follow the dharma.

sub-commentaries and further sub-commentaries / glosses on bhASya says that one must practice vedic karma-kANDa, not just once but until one is sufficiently purified. After attaining certain level of inner purification, one is taught to think in an introvert way (vAnaprastha ASrama) and then finally it is sanyAsa of mind. So mind is made introvert.

Now, while performing karma-kANDa, one must have unflinching faith in our shastras or vedas so to say. So bhakti also has to be there. Naturally one must believe in God. Advaita (and vedAnta in general), asks one to renounce these external rites, BUT NOT BHAKTI. Our faith in shastras, god and guru are still there. They need not be renounced. The base has already been setup in karma-kANDa, upon which advaita rests. Hence one cannot say that advaita is an atheist philosophy.

Advaita or veDanta asks one to quit the very karma that gave you inner purity. But Advaita does not say to quit veda-s. Only the kamra-kANDa part. They are still authority as far as scriptural study and knowing Inner Self is concerned. Now only vedAnta is studied and not the whole lot of veda-s (samhitA-s and brAhmaNa-s)

I would certainly disagree that the words of shastras should be questioned. Yet the natural doubts that arise should be freely discussed with Guru or with learned ones so that one can find solution and can gain clarity. Clearing doubts help one to progress in spirituality.

But to question everything is not advisable. With due respect to all dharmas, I strongly feel that Hindu dharma is complete in itself and there is no need to borrow anything from other dharmas.

I am not attesting blind faith. One may ask, what is the authenticity of 'X' statement that you made. When one has to give pramANa-s. Advaita accepts all 6 pramANa-s.

Hari OM

 

[Amrut]

Pranams,

Personally, I think the best alternative here is to actually study the works of Shri Adi Shankaracharya with sincerity, receptivity, and patience

+1, I will second that

 

[Maya3]

Namaste!
I was recently having a conversation with a friend who comes from a Hindu family but does not know much about various schools and philosophies within Hinduism. Based on his explanation of his beliefs, I determined that he agrees with Advaita philosophy. But during the conversation I realised that I am still very confused about Advaita concepts.

For instance, is it correct to interpret that according to Advaita, the gods such as Shiva and Vishnu are actually equal to us as they and we merge into Brahman and are ultimately One? Ie/ no real difference between myself and Vishnu.

And if this is true, doesn't that make Advaita atheistic?

Apologies if my questions and assumptions are way off!

The way I see it, is that Shiva and Vishnu arent there at all. They are our own imagery to describe The Self. We often need a description to help us focus on the formless.
The Self is Everything, us and everything in the universe.
But it is also God/Self. God is not how we have been conditioned to see God. God is formless and indescribable and everywhere you look and feel.
For me The Self is sound vibration. So in a way if you feel that God has to have a form, then you could look at it as atheism. But for me it is the opposite of atheism.

Maya

 

[Stormcry]

ISvara is Brahman + mAyA.

Unchallenging Truth but....

Some zealous vaishnawas will make fun of you. They don't know that Krishna himself said that in Bhagavad Gita that he appears in a form through his Maya.

 

[Aupmanyav]

Please do not trust wiki. It is unreliable. I do not read opinion of .. Encyclopedia of Authentic Hinduism H.D. Swami Prakashanand Saraswati

That makes for a chauvinist, Hindu Mahasabhait Akahand Bharatiya Hindu. In this 21st Century such views are not appropriate, just as those propagated by what has come to be known as Batra Brigade. Hindu school system will also become a butt of jokes as the Pakistani school system is, doctoring history. We should desist from it.

The thing is that our intellect should be used in a way that it increases our devotion.

Our intellect should be used for only one purpose, that is finding truth. Any other purpose does not equal that.

 

[Punit]

Namaste!
I was recently having a conversation with a friend who comes from a Hindu family but does not know much about various schools and philosophies within Hinduism. Based on his explanation of his beliefs, I determined that he agrees with Advaita philosophy. But during the conversation I realised that I am still very confused about Advaita concepts.

For instance, is it correct to interpret that according to Advaita, the gods such as Shiva and Vishnu are actually equal to us as they and we merge into Brahman and are ultimately One? Ie/ no real difference between myself and Vishnu.

And if this is true, doesn't that make Advaita atheistic?

Apologies if my questions and assumptions are way off!

Watch the 2 part video "Who Am I - According to Manduka Upanishad" by Swami Sarvapriyananda - he beautifully explains the concept of Advaita. This was at a lecture at IIT Kanpur.