--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, "curtisdeltablues" <curtisdeltabl...@...> wrote: > > It underlines the point that enlightenment gives you wisdom. > The story I was referring to was when Trotaka revealed his > enlightenment to the others. Shankara was insisting that they > all wait for him [Trotaka] and the others snickered that he > didn't understand it anyway. He came in singing his "cognized" ? Trotaka stakham sp? verses revealing his complete knowledge.
Which, coincidentally, just happened to be a sappy love song to his teacher, expressing his total devotion to him. THAT is what Maha- rishi was trying to put forth as the primary criterion of enlightenment. > I memorized them on my TTC, it is a beautiful song. This is > from a TTC tape on him. His wisdom came from his enlightenment > and he put all the smartypants guys to shame. And his enlightenment came from being slavishly devoted to his "master" and willing to do any- thing that this "master" said, without a moment's hesitation. Notice the trend here? > His verses were so perfect that it blew them away with his > mental ability gained not through pulling all-nighters, but > by his devotion and enlightenment. And the "lesson" being clearly taught here was that the latter (enlightenment) came from the former (devotion). Trotaka didn't have to "crack the books" to get smart, all he had to do was do whatever he was told to do by his "master." I'm just reiterating the point I made earlier, that Maharishi was trying to cultivate that sense of devotion to one's "master" that *he* considered "the highest" in his students by telling emotional "feel good" stories. This story is NOT about Trotaka's intellect; the intellect is presented as *secondary*, some- thing that happened *as the result* of total, unthinking bhakti. In fact, the development of the intellect in the other students is what is being presented as "secondary." They are being presented not as happening as Trotaka because they were not as "sold out" to their "master" as he was. I'm not saying that this theory of enlighten- ment through devotion is unique, nor am I sug- gesting that it's not valid for some people, who are "made that way." What I am suggesting is that Maharishi, by telling this story over and over and over, was trying to establish it as *the* path for people who might NOT be "made that way." In my estimation he clearly saw total, unthinking devotion to one's "master" AS the "highest path," because *he* was "made that way," and he wanted to remake all of his students over to be like him. I am gracious enough to believe that in the beginning he did this because he really thought that *his* path -- the only one he was capable of because *he* was not a great intellect or drawn to any of the other many viable paths to enlightenment -- was the best path to teach others, "for their own good." But at the same time, I think it is important to remember that the "master" that Maharishi was teaching his students the value of being slavishly devoted to was HIM. I believe that on one level Maharishi may have been trying to convince his students that bhakti and slavish devotion were good things because in his opinion they could lead to enlightenment. But on another, I equally believe that he was trying to establish that same unthinking devotion towards HIM in his students that he was talking about in Trotaka. Forty years later, the unthinking devotion is all that remains, with nary an example of it having led to enlightenment in sight. (Or at least not as recognized by Maharishi or the organization he founded.)
