The endless debate: 2

Debate 2: "Bhagvadpadacharya Adi Shankara suggested most effective Sadhana of Chanting in his work 'Bhajagovindam'."

prb: Oh, no, Sir, not at all! He didn't call it as most effective or anything. Else he wouldn't have spent the entire life refuting other philosophies. Its one of the paths! Contrary to that, Shankara said that *only* jn~Ana can give mukti/ moksha.


Purvapakshi 3: "Chanting is a Sadhana which leads us to God, Bhagvatam says Chanting is only way remaining in KaliYuga, which leads us to our God."

prb: This community's called Vedanta. So accordingly, shruti vAkya-s hold more value (pramANa) than purANa-s. With all due respect to Bhagavatam, a purANa, its not true; why else would you bring up the following that you mention in another thread?! May I also add that Hare Krishna Mahamantra has been "made-up" by a certain cult that I do not want to point fingers at, which was originally beginning with "Hare Rama, Hare Rama..."


Purvapakshi 3: "Please Suggest Sadhana... any true devottes of Lord here, Please suggest me a fruitful Sadhana."

prb: My 2 cents follow pls...

"I do Chanting often."
prb: Great, don't leave that. It sure works wonders. IMHO, nAmasmaraN as japa should turn into ajapa, as in it should continue effortlessly in all of one's waking hours, if not in sleepiness too!


Purvapakshi 3: "Any Other Fruitful Sadhana which was suggested by Bhagvatapada Shankaracharya?"

prb: All sAdhana-s are considered fruitful as long as the aspirant is an honest seeker and considers them as paths till they graduate into gaining jn~Ana that alone can result in moksha.


Purvapakshi 3: "Please share the Actual methods of realizing the God explained by Sri Bhagvatapada Sankaracharya."

prb: Shankara's path involves shravaNa-manana-nidhhidhyAsana, meaning listening shruti from a guru, contemplating on it and then meditating on it.

shankarArpaNamastu


Later, after a lot of personal abuse from Purvapakshi 3, deleted by the moderator...

prb: Take your fanatic lies and get lost. YOU HAVE READ NOTHING. Acharya Bhagavadpada's biography does not contain any of the things that you mention. Next, why ask a question (about sadhana) just for the sake of asking and commenting on something you don't believe and/ or understand? You're clearly here with an ill-intention and thats just pathetic.

Finally, I'm going to say this, having avoided it this far: This is not your ISKCON community for you to spew venom on other faiths and people. Its a typical attitude problem of you people to do missionary activities and this is how your virus starts.


Much later, after Purvapakshi 3 quoted from Shankara's Vivekachudamani to someone in favour of Advaita!

prb: Let me clarify at the offset here that, AFAIK, none of the Advaitin members here are claiming that "only they have knowledge of Advaita". You have brought out very good points from Shankara's vivekachuDAmaNi. This is all I intended in my earlier postings too. And that is precisely what I'd like to mention again: 62-64 contradict with what you said earlier on "Chanting is a Sadhana which leads us to God, Bhagvatam says Chanting is only way remained in KaliYuga, which leads us to our God". It helps undoubtedly, but its definitely not the only way and as per Shankara, it cannot give us moksha.

Thanks once again, for bringing the thread back to Shankara.


Purvapakshi 4: "... and goswami tulasidas actly says "kalyug keval naam aadhaara" what ever was immposible in other yugas, can b attained in this yug by chanting the maha mantra."

prb: This one is a little off the mark as per Vedanta. "keval nAma Adhara" from a purANa holds no weight in comparison to shruti-based vedAnta. Also, the mahAmantra has been modified from the original one beginning with "hare rAma hare rAma...".

btw: on a related note, does anyone know since when was this called as a mahAmantra and why? Thx


Purvapakshi 4: the vedanta is a mystery. its is not fully understood or smtimes misunderstood.it takes a long time to b understood or 1 may not understand a little bit of it throughout his life, ... then his case will b "na maaya mila na ram"... that is y chanting the name is as good as hearing to the vedanta or chanting it..

prb: Even so, it holds no weight :)