Monday, April 21, 2008

Jagat on Madhava, me on Jagat on Madhava

Just readJagat writing about Madhava. I'm spacing out heavily at the moment and read blogs to waste time. http://jagadanandadas.blogspot.com/
I took two issues as problematic: 1) citing M.'s samkaras, and says he will always be a Vaisnava. What is a decade or two or three in the scope of eternity? People follow some religion for some years and think its indicative of some kind of destiny, or worse, a qualification. Its a faulty assessment of time that one uses as reason to maintain our mundane conceptions about ourselves.
Which leads us to... 2) There is nothing 'anti-love' about Buddhism or Advaita Vedanta (code words for people who don't believe GV); the assessments are meant to be disturbing as our comfort with the humanly idea of 'love' is our self-destructive (really just ignorant) justification for maintaining bodies of matter, which in turn, keep us searching for 'love'. There is nothing inherently good or bad in the world, but there is suffering or denial of love, or else people wouldn't join salvific religions like GV. The beauty one chases in GV is the beauty of the Self, which the mind tries to accommodate in language it understands. The categories we choose to frame our lives have no meaning outside of the source of life, and if someone is fortunate, stubborn and daring enough they will get a glimpse (I think M. may be stubborn enough). Nothing really magical or mystical about it. Tantra, Buddhist or Hindu, uses similar techniques as GV, yet they understand the deities and meditations are tools, not the goal. GV takes the means as more or less the end, and must therefore juggle many inconsistencies and ontological difficulties in the process.

I thought a few years ago when I first met M. online he was too inquisitive to stay in GV and make the continuous leaps of faith adherence to the philosophy demands. I don't think he will be back, but the thought is disturbing to some, and they should ask themselves why. J. laments the overall kanistha orientation of the modern GV world, which is another point of inquiry, why is this? I have indirectly stated my answer.

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