Begun reading 'My Life and Quest' by Arthur Osborne, Sri Ramanasramam, 4th Ed., 2013.
I like the book for the facile style of the author. He is able to pack very many mental depths into his constructions. Of course he is very lame, when he tries to compare and draw a uniform line through the religions semitic and Asian.
From his writings one is able to understand much about the war years and the silent and ebullient quests of human beings across the globe. The sweat of the continents and the spiritual breeze of the East, are shown in realistic terms by the author.
Gone half way. I will be back with it to you after finishing. But a very good purchase, that too in this scorching heat, such a cool and soothing reading!
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I am growing more critical about such concepts like 'culture', 'tradition', 'heritage'. Sometimes those look nonsense to me. Every human being is individualistic and what he understands and decides in her or his life is the only thing that matters. All other word buildings are so many machinations of deceit, transmitted by default across generations, at a heavy and unpardonable cost of human well-being. Awareness breaks such illusion-eggs. Ignorance and sympathy and anxiety of belonging to the groups hatch such eggs of havoc.
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Here is one quote from Bergen Evans --
Here is one quote from Bergen Evans --
"In the last analysis all tyranny rests on fraud, on getting someone to accept false assumptions, and any man who for one moment abandons or suspends the questioning spirit has for that moment betrayed humanity."
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Anything that appeals to our reason, let us accept, even if a child should say it. On the other hand, anything that is repugnant to reason, let us reject, even though it might come from Brahma.
-- Do you know who said this ? இதைச் சொன்னவர் யார் என்று உங்களால் சொல்ல முடியுமா?
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The answer is -- Sri Ramana Maharishi.
The answer is -- Sri Ramana Maharishi.
Ref: Sri Ramana Reminiscences, G V Subbaramayya, 4th Ed 2014, Sri Ramanasram
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I thought that the Buddhist position regarding the concepts of change and unsubstantiality are quite unassailable. But Swami Vivekananda has very brilliantly shown how Advaita reconciles the positions of Buddhism vis-a - vis Advaita, in his four lectures on the subject of Practical Vedantha. Very brilliant !
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Reality is really how many? Or how many aspects of reality make the total reality? Or how many phases of reality coalesce to form the whole reality? Dr Sir Roger Penrose says three such realitys coalesce or at least relate among themselves to form the totality of reality. The Physical reality, the mental reality, the mathematical reality. Then what is that REALITY which houses all these three?
Reality is really how many? Or how many aspects of reality make the total reality? Or how many phases of reality coalesce to form the whole reality? Dr Sir Roger Penrose says three such realitys coalesce or at least relate among themselves to form the totality of reality. The Physical reality, the mental reality, the mathematical reality. Then what is that REALITY which houses all these three?
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இளைஞர்களுக்கு புத்திமதி சொல்றது என்றால் இது மாதிரி இருக்கணும். அதை விட்டுட்டு --
Epicurus in a letter to Menoeceus --
"Let no one when young delay to study philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of his study. For no one can come too early or too late to secure the health of his soul. And the man who says that the age for philosophy has either not yet come or has gone by is like the man who says that the age for happiness is not yet come to him, or has passed away."
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எபிக்யூரஸ் அருமையாகச் சொல்கிறார் மண்டையில் அடித்தால் போல் --
And the impious man is not he who denies the gods of the many, but he who attaches to the gods the beliefs of the many.
ஸூப்பர்!
Swami Vivekananda
ஆன்மிக வாழ்க்கை என்ன என்பதை இரண்டு வரிகளில் முடித்து விட்டார் விவேகாநந்தர்.
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