Q.534 Purpose and Meaning
Q: Advaita Vedanta has caused me two persistent difficulties. Firstly its argument that we are dependent upon Brahman, yet Brahman has no dependence; secondly that since we cannot know Brahman, only be...
View ArticleQ.535 Transmigrating Soul
Q: On your website it seems that, in the ‘Question and Answer’ section, it implies that there is an individual soul going from body to body. But in this interview from your same site Ramesh Baleskar...
View ArticleQ.536 Experience of death
Q: My Guru, Nisargadatta, often leads me to believe that when we die, we bring absolutely nothing with us. We will have no form, no color, no memory of our past life. And yet, thousands of people over...
View ArticleQ.537 Need for a Guru
Q: The great masters, Ramana Maharshi and Nisargadatta Maharaj lay no stress on the need for a guru to reach realization. Nisargadatta states flatly in ‘I Am That’ p.149 that no individual guru is...
View ArticleQ.538 Duḥkha and Stress
Q: I am currently reading and enjoying ‘The Mind’s Own Physician’ in which Jon Kabat-Zinn mentions that some Buddhist scholars are beginning to translate duḥkha as ‘stress’ rather than ‘suffering’....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Experiencing Brahman
Here are the definitions for the word ‘experience’ in Chamber’s dictionary: All of these necessitate an ‘experiencer’ and an ‘experienced’ ‘thing’. Brahman is the non-dual reality. How could Brahman be...
View ArticleMeaning of anubhava
The following forms the beginning of the chapter on ‘Experience (anubhava) and its relation to enlightenment’ from my book ‘Confusions in Advaita Vedanta: Knowledge, Experience and Enlightenment’. This...
View ArticleQ.540 Following Bhakti Yoga
Q: If God is not a separate entity and just a symbol for different qualities then how does one proceed with Bhakti? Bhakti develops unconditional love for God. But shouldn’t this love be for our loved...
View ArticleAdvaita in the West
Readers of my books and blogs will know that, over the years, my position has shifted from early support of modern Western teachers to an increasing criticism of anything other than the traditional...
View ArticleQ. 542 ‘Doership’ and Osho
Q: Can you explain why Osho says that Brahman is behind all worldly activities and I am that Brahman, meaning ‘I am the doer’? This means that the thief, the man who is blinded by lust, the greedy...
View Article
