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Post by meeno8 on Nov 1, 2021 20:40:03 GMT -6
How do Shankara et al explain this beginning of the Brahma-sutras in their tikas?
om tat sat
tattvam asi
aham brahmasmi
Somewhere around here I have an English translation of Baladeva's Govinda-bhasya, but I would have to search for that. At any rate, I don't think jumping right into that more recent commentary would be in order without also including all the prior ones starting with Shankara.
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jiva
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Post by jiva on Nov 4, 2021 7:27:53 GMT -6
Give up all religions! Religions are by their very nature fantasies and full of nonsensical beliefs and practices. Caitanya Vaisnavism as a religion is as false and deleterious as every other religion that ever existing. CV as a philosophy, however, seems patently true. If so, baba, then - why diksa into tradition at all?__/\ò_ |
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Post by Nitaidas on Nov 4, 2021 13:59:14 GMT -6
Give up all religions! Religions are by their very nature fantasies and full of nonsensical beliefs and practices. Caitanya Vaisnavism as a religion is as false and deleterious as every other religion that ever existing. CV as a philosophy, however, seems patently true. If so, baba, then - why diksa into tradition at all?__/\ò_ Good question, maharaj. Does diksa into a tradition amount to religion for you? Perhaps we need to be more specific about what religion is, especially with respect to its dark side. You say "tradition" in your question instead of religion. This makes me think that on some level you are suspicious of religion, too, as well one should be. I prefer to think of CV as a tradition, but not a religion. It is in fact a tradition that attempts to transcend or overcome religion. As a student of the history of religions, I have studied and taught about world religions for years, both as a graduate student in Chicago and at various institutions around the this country. One of the main features of religions that has emerged for me during this period is how various religions have acted to separate different groups from each other and in numerous cases turn them into enemies almost always violently. Just look at the histories of Christianity and its crusades and witch hunts and pogroms. Just see how today in the USA white racism and white supremacy are largely fostered and supported by (the largely uneducated in) Evangelical Christian religions, the base of Trump voters in the USA. Similar violent attacks, expressions of hatred, and enmities can be pointed to in every major and minor religion around the world. The Hindus are no exception. The times one sect has attacked and butchered other sects in India are numerous. And then just look at the current situation in India under the arch-villain Modi. Even the Buddhists are not free from this and current events in Southeast Asia and Srilanka demonstrate. In my view CV is anti-religion at its core, but over the centuries it has been covered over by religious accretions like barnacles on the hulls of old ships. The primary move away from religion in CV is the move from aisvarya to madhurya. Religion promotes and revels in aisvarya. Gods require grandeur, awe-inspiring cathedrals and huge opulent temples. Awe and wonder are the currencies of religion. Our tradition discards all that, or it should. Actually, it is rather disgusting to see how much of that has crept back in. We are offered instead madhurya, an opportunity to approach Krsna in some intimate way that is essentially areligious. We are best at loving Krsna if we can forget he is god. He wants that from us and relishes our exchanges with him as a servant, friend, parent, or lover. One could connect our tradition more with mysticism than with religion. The mystic has a direct experience of the sacred whereas in religion the experience of god is mediated by an institutional or authoritative hierarchy. It is indirect and distant. It is frightening to be in the presence of the Christian or Islamic or Judaic gods. They are present as pure innervating power, overwhelming and threatening since one feels diminished and easily extinguishable in this august presence. Read Friedrich Schleiermacher's On Religion if you want to get a taste of this feeling of absolute nothingness before god. Anyway, I could go on for hours on this topic. Religion is man's creation, not God's. It keeps us from God and our fellow humans and animals, rather than connecting us with them. |
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jiva
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Post by jiva on Nov 4, 2021 14:32:03 GMT -6
Ah, now I understand what you mean.
As in the case of the term " a_Theism", which you used in Sane Vaisnavism text, if I remember correctly. In any case, I think that these thoughts (religion/tradition) can be nicely fitted/added in that paper. Thank you for your answer, Nitai ji.  |
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