To reiterate - the term "maya" in Advaita Vedanta is not real, yet not unreal; it is neither both nor neither. Maya in Advaita Vedanta is real in the sense that it is presented to us, but not real in the absolute sense. According to Shankara, maya is a superimposition on the real.
Apparently there are no Vedanta scholars posting to this list, so lets just break it down and make it simple for people to understand: TM practice is yoga - based on the tantras and not on the Advaita Vedanta. MMY did not emphasize the notion that maya is illusion - that notion would be totally counter-productive for ordinary householders. Shankara's Advaita Vedanta is based on Sri Vidya and Kashmere Trika. It is a restatement of Buddhist Vijnanvada, which takes the ultimate reality to be pure consciousness, "vijnana" in Sanskrit. Liberation or moksha is release by aquiring "vidya" - knowledge. The term "advaita" in Sansrit means "not-two" - nondual idealism. Advaita Vedanta is the identity of the true Self, Atman, which is pure consciousness. Excerpt from vijnApti matratA siddhi by vasAabAndhu: "Reality is Pure Conciousness; external objects do not exist outside thought. Reality can be directly realized by transcending the subject-object duality." (vimshAtika-Vrtti on kArikA 1 - Sharma). So, let's review what we know: The first historical proponent of Advaita Vedanta was the Adi Guru, Shri Gaudapadacharya, the teacher of Shankara and his teacher, Shri Govindacharya. Gaudapadacharya composed the Mandukya-Karika, the first treatise on non-dual consciousness, in which three states of consciousness are enumerated, and a transcendental state, "turiya", which in Sanskrit means fourth. Excerpt from Mandukya Karia by Gaudapada: "Duality is only an appearance; non-duality is the real truth. The object exists as an object for the knowing subject; but it does not exist outside of consciousness because the distinction of subject and object is within consciousness" (IV 25-27 - Sharma). Shankaracharya founded ten sannyasin orders including the Saraswati; Shankara founded four seats of learning including the monestery at Sringeri. The guru of Swami Brahmananda Saraswati was Swami Krishnananda Saraswati, both highly accomplished siddha yogis who followed the Sri Vidya tradition. SBS's student was Swami Hariharananda Saraswati (Karpatri Swami) a proponent of the non-dual Sri Vidya. MMY studied and learned yoga meditation under SBS for thirteen years and then founded the TMO. In 1968 MMY visited Srinagar with his students on TTC, and meditated in a group with Swami Lakmanjoo, the last guru of the Kasmere tantric system. Kashmere Shaivism is a form of transcendental, realistic idealism; a form of absolute monism. According to Kashmere Shaivism, 'Cit' is pure consciousness - the One Reality. The term "trika" in Sanskrit means three, refering to the three states of consciousness, called in Sri Vidya the "three cities". Works cited: 'A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy' by Chandrahar Sharma, M.A., D. Phil., D. Litt., LL.B., Shastri, Dept. of Phil., Benares Hindu U. Rider, 1960 p. 245-246. 'A Critical Survey of Indian Philosophy' by Chandrahar Sharma, M.A., D. Phil., D. Litt., LL.B., Shastri Dept. of Phil., Benares Hindu University Rider, 1960. p. 114. 'The Secret of the Three Cities' An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism by Douglas Renfrew Brooks University Of Chicago Press, 1990 Hariharananda Saraswati: "He was also the great expert of Shree Vidya and probably all the present day experts in Varanasi have somehow or the other obtained Shree vidya from him or his pupils." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swami_Karpatri On Mon, Jan 20, 2014 at 10:05 PM, <emptyb...@yahoo.com> wrote: > > > This reply demonstrates that you are either unable to understand the post > or you didn't read it. It also shows that you are probably unqualified to > study advaita. > > The post was about Advaita - not Kashmiri Trika or Shri Vidya.Your reply > is merely inane. Don't sully this one with your quasimoto, > pseudo-professorial bullshit. > >
