Once, in Kasi, when Sri Sankara was going to the Vishwanath Temple, his path was blocked by an "untouchable" who was accompanied by his wife and 4 dogs. The disciples of Sri Sankara shouted at him to make way, and to keep a distance. The untouchable smiled and said, ""According to your principle of Advaita, which you practice, all the Jivatma are same as God. How do you ask me to go? How am I different from your Paramacharya? What you say is unreasonable. How can I go away from myself?" Sri Sankara realised that it was not an ordinary person and understood that it was Lord Shiva himself who had come along with His consort and the four Vedas. He prostrated before the Lord and sang five slokas called "Manisha Panchakam". Lord Shiva presented himself along with Visalakshi and blessed Sri Sankara.
How can Sankara prescribe such rituals when he himself practiced Advaita Vedanta
RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Gururaj Vaidya on Jun 06, 2007 10:19 AM Permalink
What is GOD? by Gururaj Vaidya on Jun 06, 2007 09:17 AM | Hide replies
The same Adi Shankara who supposedly made the rules at Guruvayur, made a statement having a profound meaning = "Bramha Satya, Jagat mithya, Jivo Brahmaiva napara", "Aham Brahmasmi".
If you deeply understand the meaning of these statements, you will realise that there is no need to visit any temple, church, masjid, gurudwara and any other temple. What are these temples any way? A means of asking gullible public to pay for receiving some UNKNOWN blessings of QUESTIONABLE GOD.
People should just stop going to any temple - be it the Tirupati, or the Jyotirlings or the Devi temples. GOD is not so cheap that it will get swayed by offerings of earthly human. What can you offer in any case to the ALMIGHTY who has created all and who is also residing in you.
Temples have converted GOD into a business to earn money and Power. These are just like a market place, a subji mandi.
What is GOD? RE:RE:What is GOD? by Gururaj Vaidya on Jun 06, 2007 09:48 AM The Point was, why should the Ravi and Ravikrishna make such a fuss about going to a temple in the first place? If you are so liberated as to marry a Christian (Nothing wrong in that), then why bother to go to a Hindu place of worship? If you have shown that you dont believe in the Hindu faith, then why make a fuss about taking your son, born out of an act of faith defiance, to seek blessings again to a temple of the same faith. Is it not being hyp
RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Dheeraj Akula on Jun 06, 2007 10:30 AM Permalink
Extending your logic, why do we need to go to a temple at all?
You can worship God anywhere, right?
What do you say?
Practising Advaita Vedanta and prescribing these rituals are not contradictory with each other.
What you need to understand is a temple is not a public place, where evry Tom, Dick and Harry can stroll in.
A temple has certain rules and customs to be followed.
Today, even some restaurants have dress code to be followed. They don't allow you inside if you don't wear shoes.
A temple is one way of transforming a person and elevating him. It is one of the ways, not the only way. For that transformation and elevation to happen, certain ambience and atmosphere is required. That is why camphor is lit, flowers are thrown, Sanskrit solkas are uttered and so on.
RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Anand Iyer on Jun 06, 2007 10:20 AM Permalink
Yes. This copncept of Advaita Vedanta has been inspired from several slokas of Gita. One of the slokas is verse no.29 of Chapter No.9 where Lord says: "I am equally present in all beings. None is hated by me and none is dear to me". So in Lord's eyes all r equal. My questions to the Tanthri: 1. Have u read Bhagvad Gita? 2. Is the Krishna of Guruvayoor the same Krishna who revelaed the Gita?
RE:RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Gururaj Vaidya on Jun 06, 2007 10:25 AM Permalink
GREAT my dear friend.
We have now reached a level, where if LORD KRISHNA were to reappear and tell everyone that what they are following is WRONG and not at all prescribed by HIM, HE will told to simply get lost as HE does not understand anything about the issue.
RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by anand shrinivasan ganesh on Jun 06, 2007 10:36 AM Permalink
My Christian teacher once remarked: " If Jesus were scheduled to speak at Shivaji Park(mumbai) and Pope were scheduled to address the faithfuls at nother ground same day and same time, there will be a bigger crowd at the latter venue. Pope has more followers than Jesus."
RE:RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Jayaram Kirti on Jun 06, 2007 11:54 AM Permalink
Please try to understand what the Tantri says.... It is just a purification ceremony.. not an insult to any individual... If you will remember it right, in the olden days only Brahmins were allowed into temples... has anyone ever thought why??? It is because unlike the Brahmins of today, the Brahmins of those days were very pious and never took Non-veg. And, even today, if u talk to certain people of the other community, you will come to know that some of them do not take non-veg on days when they go to temples. That is simply because, of the belief that by taking non-veg, one becomes impure and he does not want to dilute a holy temple. It is for the same reason that non-hindus are not allowed into The Sri Krishna Temple at Guruvayoor. Today, by an Act of Law, Hindu non-Brahmins are also allowed entry into the temple which is not in the hands of the Tantri or any other temple official. And, there are purification ceremonies which are carried on as a ritual almost every day and several times a week as mentioned by the Tantri himself. I really dont understand what is wrong in respecting a tradition of an old temple.... why talk of Advaita Vendantam... etc... narrate stories... and complicate simple things.... Just try to understand the reason behind what is being said and appreciate the age-old practice.
RE:RE:The Principle of Advaita Vedantam
by Dheeraj Akula on Jun 06, 2007 10:34 AM Permalink
It is a true incident. And, this story (true incident) is very, very famous, too. It is surprising that you do not know about it.
In this incident, Adi Shankara has also written a "panchakam" (five slokas), which is really wonderful, where he says that a chandala is same as Lord Siva for him.
But, Mr. $Ronaldo$ 's logic is idiotic, to say the least.
