Originally Posted by
mithya
I don't believe I abused anyone. But it's a fact that Swami V and most neo-Vedantins wanted to help the poor of India. So calling the world an illusion wouldn't have helped their cause in the west. That's perhaps why they diluted advaita, who knows? So they did what they did for noble reasons. I am not at all blaming them, it goes on to show how sensitive they were to the poor man's needs.
Dear mithya,
You do not know teachings of Swami Vivekanada or of Ramana Maharshi. Below, I give two pieces of former's writings:
This theory of Maya has been the most difficult thing to understand in all ages. Let me tell you in a few words that it is surely no theory, it is the combination of the three ideas Desha-Kâla-Nimitta — space, time, and causation — and this time and space and cause have been further reduced into Nâma-Rupa. Suppose there is a wave in the ocean. The wave is distinct from the ocean only in its form and name, and this form and this name cannot have any separate existence from the wave; they exist only with the wave. The wave may subside, but the same amount of water remains, even if the name and form that were on the wave vanish for ever. So this Maya is what makes the difference between me and you, between all animals and man, between gods and men.
In fact, it is this Maya that causes the Atman to be caught, as it were, in so many millions of beings, and these are distinguishable only through name and form. If you leave it alone, let name and form go, all this variety vanishes for ever, and you are what you really are. This is Maya.
It is again no theory, but a statement of facts.
And
Gentlemen,
I have tried to place before you a few of the most brilliant points of the Advaita system, and now the time has come when it should be carried into practice, not only in this country but everywhere. Modern science and its sledge-hammer blows are pulverising the porcelain foundations of all dualistic religions everywhere. Not only here are the dualists torturing texts till they will extend no longer —
Swami Vivekananda was the perfect follower of Shankara and a karma yogi, who understood, that a man who is drinking his wine from a cup cannot be told that the cup is made of his mind matter alone and is illusory.
It is foolishness to teach a man running away from a tiger that the tiger is illusion.
However, He never minced words about what is the ultimate knowledge, as shown above.
You also do not comprehend Shri Ramana. He always asks us to find the one who is in MAyA. The search finally indicates that the mind of Man itself is the bondage called MAyA. And beneath the rumblings of the man's mind, the man (Purusha-Atman) is none but Brahman. (Ayamatma brahma).
Both of these great teachers teach what Shri Krishna taught:"Even in this life they have conquered relative existence whose minds are firm-fixed on the sameness of everything, for God is pure and the same to all; therefore, such are said to be living in God.
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There is no division between World and Brahman, except in your own mind. Please desist to judge great teachers, if you are a real advaitin.
If you are fake, you are free to do anything.
Om
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