Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00173)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Raghu K" <raghu_k@a...> wrote:
> 
> hi
> 
> seems there is a lot of misconceptions about sankaracharya !
> 
> there were times, when people who claimed to be rational started 
spitting
> venom, on him, his ashram and his followers - There were times, in 
my school
> days, when I was called '...' by the so called rational people - 
people with
> the sixth sense, according to them, conveniently, for political 
gains, b'cos
> i followed the teachings of sankaracharya !

forget him he's dead. DK and HPB are going to both visit California 
next week and will be looking into setting up an ashram at the same 
time. He will be up north on Tuesday and she in the south on Tuesday 
to meet up later. You can laugh--but we all draw closer to that time 
of mental revelation every second. I hope you can handle its advent.

Netemara
> 
> These 'rational scholars' were atheists - but, without 
understanding what
> spirituality was all about, they said it was wrong & persons like
> sankaracharya were using it to deceive people ! One guy even 
ventured to
> ask 'c'mon, buddy, show me Lord Vishnu, I will start believing in 
God - till
> then, I will not & nor will I allow anyone else to'.
> 
> This was the time, when Sankaracharya spoke out that it was 
absolutely at
> the discretion of the people whether or not to believe in God & one 
has not
> ought to make comments about something, without understanding the 
essence of
> it, if at all, he is rational. Nothing like - pouring hot molten 
metal into
> the mouth...' , as put by someone.
> 
> Please understand the life of the saint, before making such sweeping
> statements.
> 
> Raghu Seshadri.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: stevestubbs [mailto:stevestubbs@y...]
> Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 4:24 AM
> To: theos-talk@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Theos-World Re: High esteem or arrogance ??
> 
> 
> --- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "arielaretziel"
> <arielaretziel@y...> wrote:
> > I would like to have the exact reference and quote where Sankara
> > actually say this. Sounds like another crazy "internet story" like
> > the ones we here from Netenara and Frank all the time.
> 
> Nope. I studied Sankara many years ago before I ever heard of the
> Internet. His sadhana catustaya was one of the great discoveries of
> my life, but I was disturbed by some of the other things and was not
> comfortable with him. Some of these issues were philiosophical (the
> objective idealism of Samkhya seems more true or at least more
> acceptable than his subjective idealism) and some of them were
> comments such as the one cited. He was quite a controversial
> character during his lifetime. It is possible that some of the
> disturbing things I have read were canards spread by his enemies 
(and
> he did have enemies) but the nature of them is such that they would
> have been representative of the time in which he lived. I think an
> enemy would have concocted a different story, in other words.
> Anyway, Patanjali and the underlying philosophy of Kapila which
> supplies the theoretical unbderpinning for Patanjali's system, were
> just more palatable to me. Part of that is, we do not know anything
> about Patanjali except for the name and the content of his book,
> which is arguably the premier work on yoga ever written. Since we
> know nothing about him, it is impossible for any warts he may have
> had to sully our appreciation of his masterpiece. Maybe it is just 
a
> question of individual taste, who knows?
> 
> Anyway, there are scholarly books on Sankara and you can read all
> about him if you choose. Many of his works have also been
> translated, especially his BRAHMA SUTRAS (also known as the VEDANTA
> SUTRAS), etc.
> 
> I try not to spread "crazy" stuff unless I am in a joking mood.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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