Ramanisblog

Tag: God

  • Shaiva Siddhanta Vedas Advaita 2 Difference

    The term’Siva” or rather His Attributes of appear in only in The later part of The Rig Veda.

     

    ‘Rudra’, literally meaning ‘howler’ appears as The personification of The Destructive Power in the early part of the Rig Veda.

     

    Only in the later part of the Rig Vedas does the term’Siva’ appears  and he is called “Maha Deva’

     

    In Svetevara Upanishad,Siva is shown as knowable through Bhakti.

     

    Personal Theistic concept is introduced thus regarding Siva.

     

    At best  Shaivism can be called as Theistic Non Dualism as an instrument of Realization and not as a System of Non Dualism per se.

     

    The Essentials of Indian Philosophy -Professor Hiriyanna,pages 33-34,175)

    ”

    Saiva-Siddhanta/images/Advaita-According-To-The-Saiva-Siddhanta-403.jpg
    Advaita-According-To-The-Saiva-Siddhanta.

     

    In the Vedic text, ‘Ekam‘ means that there is only one and that one is the Pati (Lord). You who say ‘There is one ‘ is the Pasu, bound up in Pasa. The word ‘Advaita’ means that beside God nothing else will exist, as when we say that there will be no other letters (consonants) when the vowel ‘A’ is not.” And the meaning will be clear when the illustration is fully understood. The illustration is that of vowel and consonants i.e.,Advaita According To The Saiva Siddhanta 399andormeaning soul and body.

    Advaita According To The Saiva Siddhanta 402

    “Thevowelbecoming one with the consonants is natural union,” is the Nannulsutra.

    And the illustration of body and mind or soul was what was stated in the first stanza.* So that we have two

    *We are glad to extract the following from Mr. Armstrong’s book, ‘God and the Soul’ wherein he brings out the same analogy.

    “But I would much rather put it in this way: the relation of the physical universe to God is, within certain limits, analogous to the relation of my body to myself. The movement of my tongue as I speak, of my eyes as I glance at my friend, of my hand as I write these words, proceeds from that stream of conscious energy which you may call my mind, my soul, my spirit, my will, or myself- Instantaneously the command of my unseen self flows through my seen self and modifies its attitudes, its gestures, its several and separable parts. But the intimate connexion between myself and my body does not imply that I am my body or that my body is myself, the ‘Ego.’ If they are in absolute alliance they are also in absolute antithesis. Nor, even if you went on to imagine my body the absolute product of my own will, and its automatic and reflex action, the breath, the circulation of the blood, the beating of the heart, the growth of the hair and the nails to be the effect of my will, and my consciousness to be perpetually engaged in conducting these processes, would you be one step nearer identifying me, the’ Ego,’ the self, with this body, but it would be other than the body, above andbeyondit, transcending it, of a nature belonging to a superior order to it, in another and a higher plane than it.”

    http://chestofbooks.com/new-age/spirituality/saivism/Saiva-Siddhanta/Advaita-According-To-The-Saiva-Siddhanta-Part-3.html#ixzz29hrpwYTB

     

    In essence The Reality arrived at by Neti Nyaya is given a Name and Form because the Human Mind can not operate in vacuum and this our Rishis have understood.

     

    Therefore an Easwara is necessary .

     

    But in the final analysis, ‘Realization is the goal and the paths are many.

     

    ‘Ekam Sat, Vipra Bahuta Vidanti’

     

    Truth is One,Learned say it is Many’

     

    Lord Krishna observes ‘Panditas say a lot about Reality, but only one in a thousand really earns after it, yet scarce are people who attempt it’

    It is my conviction that our job is to attempt at Realization rather than which system  precedes which.

     

    My reply continues on the other points.

     

     

    http://chestofbooks.com/new-age/spirituality/saivism/Saiva-Siddhanta/Advaita-According-To-The-Saiva-Siddhanta-Part-3.htmlEnhanced by Zemanta

  • Shaiva Siddhanta Vedas Non Dualism 1

    Comment.

    'Hinduism_sects/images/imgF9.jpg'
    Shaiva Siddhanta.

    “I’m not sure where the idea of saiva sithaandham being ‘dualism’ came from. saiva sithaandham is suthathuvidham (suth-adwaitha). It is also non-dualism but, not interpreted in the manner that shankarachariyar interprets, which is kehvala adwaita. sankarachaariyar expounds on God being the soul as well and that the soul becomes God upon liberation. sithaandham states that God and soul are two separate intelligent entities with the soul being inferior. Upon liberation, the soul is merged in an inseparable, non-dual, subtle state with sivaperumaan where, its ego is banished and thus, it as no experience of itself but only God and thus, only identifies with God and experiences only a little of the Bliss of God, at a time — even so, even though They exist as one Entity, they are two.”

    Reply.

    Advaita is unadulterated Non Dualism.

     

    Adi Sankara though advocated Bhakti as evidenced from his works like Bhaja Govindam and the first Bhasya of his on ‘Sri Vishu Sahasra Nama’.

     

    Notwithstanding his adherence to Bhakti Sankaracharya deals with all the paths to Realize Reality, Jnana,Karma,Bhakti-though to a very limited extent Raja Yoga). his Advaitic interpretations of the ‘Maha Vakyas-Tat Tvam Asi,Aham Brahmasmi, Soham Asmi ‘is so strict that he was and still is accused of being a pseudo Buddhist(incorrect understanding of Advaita will lead one to Sunyavada of Buddhists).

     

    For Shaiva Siddhanta, the basic Principles are Pasu,Pathi and Paasm, where Path(Lord Siva)i is always Supreme.

     

     

    Quote

    Considered normative tantric Saivism, Shaiva Siddhanta[1] [2](Tamil:சைவ சித்தாந்தம்) provides the normative rites, cosmology and theological categories of tantric Saivism.[3] Being a dualistic philosophy, the goal of Shaiva Siddhanta is to become an ontologically distinct Shiva (through Shiva’s grace).[4] This tradition was once practiced all over India. However the Muslim subjugation of north India restricted Shaiva Siddhanta to the south,[5] where it merged with the Tamil Saiva movement expressed in the bhakti poetry of the Nayanars.[6] It is in this historical context that Shaiva Siddhanta is commonly considered a “southern” tradition, one that is still very much alive.[6] Shaiva Siddhanta encompasses tens of millions of adherents, predominantly in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lanka (see Hinduism in Sri Lanka). Today it has thousands of active temples there and a number of monastic/ascetic traditions, along with its own community of priests, the Adisaivas, who are qualified to perform Shaiva Siddhantin temple rituals.

    The culmination of a long period of systematisation of its theology appears to have taken place in Kashmir in the tenth century, the exegetical works of the Kashmirian authors Bhatta Narayanakantha and Bhatta Ramakantha being the most sophisticated expressions of this school of thought.[7] Their works were quoted and emulated in the works of twelfth-century South Indian authors, such as Aghorasiva and Trilocanasiva.[8] The theology they expound is based on a canon of Tantric scriptures called Siddhantatantras or Shaiva Agamas. This canon is traditionally held to contain twenty-eight scriptures, but the lists vary,[9] and several doctrinally significant scriptures, such as the Mrgendra,[10] are not listed. In the systematisation of the ritual of the Shaiva Siddhanta, the Kashmirian thinkers appear to have exercised less influence: the treatise that had the greatest impact on Shaiva ritual, and indeed on ritual outside the Shaiva sectarian domain, for we find traces of it in such works as the Agnipurana, is a ritual manual composed in North India in the late eleventh century by a certain Somasambhu.[11] After the twelfth century, North Indian evidence for the presence of the Shaiva Siddhanta grows rarer. The school appears to have died out in other parts of India even as it grew in importance in the Tamil-speaking south. There its original emphasis on ritual fused with an intense devotional (bhakti) tradition. The Tamil compendium of devotional songs known as Tirumurai, along with the Vedas, the Shaiva Agamas and “Meykanda” or “Siddhanta” Shastras,[12] form the scriptural canon of Tamil Shaiva Siddhanta…Unquote.

     

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaiva_Siddhanta

    Continues….

     

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  • Shaiva Siddhanta The Vedas Non Dualism My Reply.

    For my post ‘Adi Sankara was a disciple of Gnana Sambandhar,Nithyananda Goofs.I received a comment which I am reproducing below.

    Normally I reply to the comments immediately.

    I thought that this comment merited a detailed reply and it is better that I post  a blog as a reply for the information of the Readers .

    My reply  follows the comment. nice to know that Nithyananda started a good topic other than Ranjitha, Arthi Rao, Rape)

    http://ramanisblog.in/2012/05/31/adi-sankara-was-a-disciple-of-gnana-sambhandarnithyananda-goofs/

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    Reply to Comments.

    “It isn’t impossible to be a disciple/devotee of someone who lived long before you or one you have never met. However, the teachings of sankarachaariyar and thiru nyaanasambandha naayanaar are different.

    I’m not sure where the idea of saiva sithaandham being ‘dualism’ came from. saiva sithaandham is suthathuvidham (suth-adwaitha). It is also non-dualism but, not interpreted in the manner that shankarachariyar interprets, which is kehvala adwaita. sankarachaariyar expounds on God being the soul as well and that the soul becomes God upon liberation. sithaandham states that God and soul are two separate intelligent entities with the soul being inferior. Upon liberation, the soul is merged in an inseparable, non-dual, subtle state with sivaperumaan where, its ego is banished and thus, it as no experience of itself but only God and thus, only identifies with God and experiences only a little of the Bliss of God, at a time — even so, even though They exist as one Entity, they are two.

    Dhehvaaram truly is only one work (7th) of the 12 thirumuRaygaL. saiva sithaandham is mentioned by other names: aruneRi, thiruneRi, seneRi, muthineRi, etc. The thirumuRaygaL have to be seen as a self-complimentary whole so, as thirumandhiram is Its 10th work, it can not be said that saiva sithaandham is not mentioned in the thirumuRay and not taught by the other books. Before meykkaNDaar, thirumandhiram served as saiva sithaandha’s saathiram which explained the thohthiram, that is, thirumuRaygaL 1 to 9, and 11 and 12.

    saiva sithaandham began even before the 1st (re)creation of the universe. sithaandham is sivaperumaan and thus eternal. It was taught to anandha dhehvar Who taught it to seekkaNDa paraman. seekkaNDa paraman imparted both the sivaagamaas and sivanyaana bohdham, which clarifies the aagamaas, to thiru nandhi dhehvar Who was given clarity of the sivanyaana bohdham directly from sivaperumaan, as thenmuga kaDavuL and thus, nandhiyaar became the Primary Student of sivaperumaan and first soul-sandhaana kuravar of saiva sithaandham. nandhiyaar has 8 students One of Whom is thirumoolar, Who was the first on earth to given the experience of sivabohgam in a language, being Tamil, and thus, thirumandhiram is considered to be the first time that the sivaagamaas were given on earth. Thus, saiva sithaandham is a collection of thoughts which are more ancient than time itself.

    On earth, even in the Indus Valley Civilisation, sithaandham was practiced. thirumandhiram, which was started around 6000BC only put it into a more structured form. For this, It had to have been practiced for years before. This is where the extinct naanmaRay come in, which is concluded to be the Tamil-saiva sithaandha vehdhaa, which is even more ancient than thirumandhiram.

    The sankrit aagamaas have South Indian written all over it. From this, it is clear that the Sanskrit Vedas represented a North Indian train of thought, which is actually a distortion of Dravidian thought which existed before the Aryans came into India, and the sanskrit sivaagamaas rerpesent South Indian thought. The aagamaas don’t specifically oppose the Vedas, even though it does, but more so, clarifies it. Using the sivaagamaas, we choose what to accept from the Vedas and how it is interpretted and, what to refute and the understanding behind the refutation.

    //He said, “I challenge these opposing groups to follow the precedent of the child saint Tiru Gnana Sambandar and prove their spiritual strength by healing any paralytic patient on one side of the body, while I heal the patient on the other side, using nothing but my spiritual strength and healing energy.”//

    By this, it shows that this Nithyananda dude, whoever he is, did not read properly the thirumuRay and has no proper understanding of saathiram and, if he made such a comparison of himself to sambandhar perumaan in front of people like myself, he’ll get beaten to death. sambandha perumaan healed the daughter of kollimaZHavan of muyalagan, a type of epilepsy. What this guy is confusing this event with is sambandha perumaan’s healing of koh koon paaNDiyan, Who emerged as naayanaar, thiru koh arikehsari ninDRaseer nedumaaranaar, of His skin-cancer, which He was inflicted with after agreeing for the Jains to set alight the madham of sambandha perumaan, which later became madhurai aadheenam.

    If only my guru and my fellow colleges lived in India, we would. Maybe, by sivaperumaan’s Grace, one day, we will challenge him.

    //He said, “Instead of violence, let us have creative competitions to see how many schools, colleges and hospitals each one can establish, how many spiritual discourses we can deliver, how many books we can author, how many people we can heal and transform.”//

    Our saiva Saints, even though perform ‘miraculous’ acts, never claimed to perform them but, instead, attributed them to the Omnipotence of sivaperumaan, therefore, they can’t even be call miracles. Violence performed in siva-consciouness is Penance, which is beyond vinay, and is thus, neither bad nor good. This guy seems to only want to feed his ego and arrogance. Build as many temples, feed as many people, give as many discourses. At the end of the day, if it isn’t done in siva-consciousness, it is considered a sin.

    It seems saiva sithaandham is as messed-up in India as it is in South Africa.

    Btw., I publish Part-translations at a time of Sithaandha Vinaa Vidai by Maha Perum Pulavar Dr. Si. Arunaivadivehl, via e-mail. Anyone interested, please send a blank mail to siva_and_tamil-hq@yahoo.com”

    Reply:

    It is possible for one to follow the other. But, the fact is that Adi Sankara was not a follower of Gnana Sambandar, not because they never met but their thoughts differ in approach.

    The comment indicates  in the next sentence ‘ However, the teachings of sankarachaariyar and thiru nyaanasambandha naayanaar are different.

    ………………………………continues………

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  • Neurosurgeon Recalls ‘Heaven’ as His Brain Lay Dead!

    The Debate rages on, whether there is Heaven or hell or it is a Myth ?

    Real experiences of near to Death have been reported throughout the world and the psychologists and those who study The Paranormal are examining the Data.

    In the meanwhile a recent report by a Neurosurgeon claiming to have had a Heavenly experience ‘ is causing interest.

    Read The story:

    The brain is an astonishingly sophisticated but extremely delicate mechanism. Reduce the amount of oxygen it receives by the smallest amount and it will react. It was no big surprise that people who had undergone severe trauma would return from their experiences with strange stories. But that didn’t mean they had journeyed anywhere real.

    Although I considered myself a faithful Christian, I was so more in name than in actual belief. I didn’t begrudge those who wanted to believe that Jesus was more than simply a good man who had suffered at the hands of the world. I sympathized deeply with those who wanted to believe that there was a God somewhere out there who loved us unconditionally. In fact, I envied such people the security that those beliefs no doubt provided. But as a scientist, I simply knew better than to believe them myself.

    In the fall of 2008, however, after seven days in a coma during which the human part of my brain, the neocortex, was inactivated, I experienced something so profound that it gave me a scientific reason to believe in consciousness after death.

    I know how pronouncements like mine sound to skeptics, so I will tell my story with the logic and language of the scientist I am.

    Very early one morning four years ago, I awoke with an extremely intense headache. Within hours, my entire cortex—the part of the brain that controls thought and emotion and that in essence makes us human—had shut down. Doctors at Lynchburg General Hospital in Virginia, a hospital where I myself worked as a neurosurgeon, determined that I had somehow contracted a very rare bacterial meningitis that mostly attacks newborns. E. coli bacteria had penetrated my cerebrospinal fluid and were eating my brain.

    When I entered the emergency room that morning, my chances of survival in anything beyond a vegetative state were already low. They soon sank to near nonexistent. For seven days I lay in a deep coma, my body unresponsive, my higher-order brain functions totally offline.

    Then, on the morning of my seventh day in the hospital, as my doctors weighed whether to discontinue treatment, my eyes popped open.

    http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2012/10/07/proof-of-heaven-a-doctor-s-experience-with-the-afterlife.html

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  • Einstein’s God Manuscript. Agnostic or Atheist?

    Albert Einstein like all Great thinkers believed in a Power higher than us.

    Of ten he used to marvel at the complexity of nature nd express awe t the Reality or what many of s call God.

    Yet Einstein’s views on God are not really known.

    He is also perceived to be an Agnostic.

    Now a hand written note by Einstein had surface where he explicitly says  “the word God is ‘nothing more than the expression of human weaknesses’.

    albert-einstein-21.jpg
    Einstein

    A handwritten letter by Albert Einstein in which he calls religion ‘childish’ is to be sold at auction – with a starting price of £1.85million.

    The Nobel Prize-winning scientist questions the existence of God in a letter penned to philosopher Eric Gutkind in 1954.

    The agnostic Jew goes on to say the Bible is a ‘collection of honourable, but still primitive legends which are nevertheless pretty childish’.

    He adds: ‘For me the Jewish religion like all other religions is an incarnation of the most childish superstitions.

    Einstein Letter.jpg.
    Einstein Letter..

    ‘And the Jewish people to whom I gladly belong and with whose mentality I have a deep affinity have no different quality for me than all other people.

    He added: ‘As far as my experience goes, they are also no better than other human groups, although they are protected from the worst cancers by a lack of power.

    ‘Otherwise I cannot see anything ‘chosen’ about them.’

    Science vs the divine: Despite being agnostic, Einstein felt an ‘affinity’ to the Jewish people

    The letter, written one year before the German’s death in 1955, is commonly known as ‘The God Letter’.

    When it was offered by Bloomsbury Auctions in 2008 it had an estimate of just £8,000. But a bidding frenzy resulted in one anonymous person eventually paying a staggering £170,000.

    The letter has been stored in a temperature-controlled vault and will be sold through LA-based Auction Cause with a starting bid of $3 million (£1.85million). However, it has been estimated the letter could fetch as much as twice this figure.

    Eric Gazin, president of Auction Cause, said: ‘This letter, in my opinion, is really of historical and cultural significance as these are the personal and private thoughts of arguably the smartest man of the 20th century.

    ‘The letter was written near the end of his life, after a lifetime of learning and thought.’

     http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2213513/Albert-Einstein-letter-uses-say-religion-childish-goes-auction-1-85MILLION.html#ixzz28WBq9Sw1 

    Einstein is regarded as one of the greatest thinkers of all time.

    His quotes on some subjects are provided here.

    Because he was a Great Scientist does not mean that he is a Master of all Subjects and his views are Gospel!

    (Like In India where Gandhi can speak on any topic and non should question it!)

    I do not agree.

    It is a matter of personal experience.

    That’s all.

    Einstein On Religion.

    ‘God does not play dice with the universe.” – Albert Einstein”Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” – Albert Einstein

    “I want to know God’s thoughts…the rest are details.” – Albert Einstein

    “I cannot conceive of a personal God who would directly influence the actions of individuals, or would directly sit in judgment on creatures of his own creation. I cannot do this in spite of the fact that mechanistic causality has, to a certain extent, been placed in doubt by modern science. [He was speaking of Quantum Mechanics and the breaking down of determinism.] My religiosity consists in a humble admiration of the infinitely superior spirit that reveals itself in the little that we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality. Morality is of the highest importance — but for us, not for God.” – Albert Einstein ‘The Human Side’, 1954

    “Subtle is the Lord, but malicious He is not.” – Albert Einstein

    “Strange is our situation here upon this earth. Each of us comes for a short visit, not knowing why, yet sometimes seeming to a divine purpose.” – Albert Einstein

    “There remains something subtle, intangible and inexplicable. Veneration for this force beyond anything that we can comprehend is my religion.” – Albert Einstein

    “Human beings, vegetables, or cosmic dust, we all dance to a mysterious tune intoned in the distance by an invisible player.” – Albert Einstein

    “Do you believe in immortality? No, and one life is enough for me.” – Albert Einstein

    “Scientists were rated as great heretics by the church, but they were truly religious men because of their faith in the orderliness of the universe.” – Albert Einstein

    “I do not believe that the Good Lord plays dice.” – Albert Einstein”

    You may note the Contradictions, at times he seems to agree on the Existence of God , at  others ambivalent!

    So let’s leave him at that, thinking along for clarity>

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