Re: Misunderstandings - VAD Threads
Originally Posted by
Avyaydya
Why read these particular texts? They have little practical contribution to Dharm. To reach Moksha? That is not a duty. Or so they can bring others to enlightenment? Then I do not agree. Enough Brahmins already take care of worthy pupils. Only few are needed for that. Most Brahmins have more simple duties like doing rituals in temples and at home than assisting people in reaching Moksha. I think the shastras are more important to their Dharm.
upaniShad-s are foundational texts in vedAnta, and vedAnta is right knowledge. Without upaniShad-s, there is no vedAnta, and without vedAnta to give right knowledge, one will lack the mental convictions and context into which to place the need for right action. With Right Knowledge one can engage in Right Action with full benefits. Without Right Knowledge, one may engage in Right Action but without the full benefit. In bhagavad-gItA, kRiShNa tells arjuna initially to fight the battle first for materialistic reasons (i.e. to enjoy the kingdom) and then later explains the doctrine of the soul and explains how to fight with detached interest in the fruits for the goal of attaining self-realization. This is an example of how the correct action can lead to two different fruits, depending on whether it is performed in full cognizance of Right Knowledge.
dharma without upaniShad-s/vedAnta is like religiosity without philosophy. Without philosophy to guide religious activities, people fall from the standard of religion because they lack the mental conviction guiding their actions and expectations of their consequences.
The need for attaining mOkSha is an implicit duty for all human beings who recognize the ephemeral nature of life, with its transitory pleasures and pains. This conviction is enshrined in the first vedAnta-sUtra "athAto brahma-jij~nASA" and occurs after one has performed vedic sacrifices for their immediate, temporary fruits, and has understood that such fruits are of limited value, and that something more lasting and beneficial should be attained.
As Shri Nisargadatta Maharaj once said: it is harder to find a worthy pupil than it is the find a good master. They are so extremely rare and such people are so near to breakthrough that they will often enlighten themselves before they find a master.
Postulating the possibility of self-enlightenment (which is somewhat of a paradox - how does one in mAyA enlighten one's self?), downplays the significance of submission to a qualified guru. But more importantly, brahmin-s have always served the role of moral exemplars in Aryan society, even if only engaged in archana, yagna, yOga, etc. While not every brahmin can be a guru, this does not preclude the need for study of vedAnta for those wishing to understand about mOkSha and the philosophical context within which to perform right actions. Furthermore, merely focusing on karma-kANda for its limited fruits will ultimately lead to fall-down. Hence, the IshopaniShad:
andhaḿ tamaḥ praviśanti ye 'vidyām upāsate |
tato bhūya iva te tamo ya u vidyāyām ratāḥ ||
As we read in one of the Upanishads a Pupil went to a Brahmin to learn and all he made him do was maintain the fires. For years he did nothing else, until the fires began to speak to him and he thus got enlightened. Only then did the Brahmin start his teaching.
It is not by teaching that people get enlightened but by walking the path of Dharm over the course of many lives. It can not be hastened by teachings, and teaching to people unworthy has disastrous consequences.
The following of dharma does not directly lead to enlightenment. It is the grace of brahman that directly leads to enlightenment. Hence:
nAyamAtmA pravachanena labhyo na medhayA na bahunA shrutena |
yamevaisha vR^iNute tena labhyaH tasyaisha AtmA vivR^iNute tanUM svAm || KaU 2.23 ||
teṣāṁ satata-yuktānāṁ bhajatāṁ prīti-pūrvakam |
dadāmi buddhi-yogaṁ taṁ yena mām upayānti te || gItA 10.10 ||
To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me. (bhagavad-gItA 10.10 - BBT)
By walking the path of dharma, i.e. varNAshrama and so on, one regulates the attachment to the pleasures of the senses which obstructs the development of transcendental knowledge. In so doing, one gains the understanding that material pleasures, even those allowed by varNAshrama and yagnas, are temporary, and one cultivates knowledge of the self culminating the understanding that even this self is the sharIra of the paramAtmA, and is meant for serving Him. By serving Him, one qualifies one's self to be the recipient of His grace, and then by His grace one gets the knowledge by which one comes to Him.
Krishna himself gives the example how this knowledge should be passed on. Firstly he says that Arjuna is worthy and that only one in many millions is worthy. Than he transfers the knowledge from the mouth of the master to the ear of the disciple. That is what Shruti really means, it must not be read, it must be heard from the mouth of a true Master. After that he impresses on him to keep this knowledge secret to anyone not worthy (Only one in many millions).
That is correct. shruti should be heard from the master, not read on one's own. That being said, we are living in a different world where the words of shruti are all over the internet and in print, where people with no knowledge or bhakti are now misleading the public about the meaning of the shruti, and where brahmins unengaged in their traditional dharma-s are aloof from both sva-dharma-s and the vedAnta upon which it is based. Therefore, one should approach a guru and study under his direction.
But Brahmins are not like that. Their responsibility is not to educate people that are interested in the highest knowledge. They rather guard that this knowledge does not fall in the wrong hands. Because higher knowledge in the hands of people with insufficient character and consciousness is seriously dangerous. Such people not only form a danger to society, they ultimately destroy themselves. Ravan is an example of that, a Brahmana and master of the Veda's, but so lacking in character he still remains ignorant, and so powerful he becomes the biggest threat to Dharm.
And what to speak of Ravana, there are also the likes of Max Muller, Wendy Donniger, H. Withernitz, et. al.
That being said, brahmins are supposed to both guard the highest knowledge and impart it to qualified pupils. The former is no longer entirely possible, since veda-s are all over the place. But still, brahmin gurus should reserve their teaching for the sincere and qualified. None of this preludes study of vedAnta, only that its teaching should be restricted for the seriously inquisitive.
Philosoraptor
"Wise men speak because they have something to say. Fools speak because they have to say something." - Plato
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