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Advaita for the 21st Century

Why ‘Traditional Advaita’ is relevant to liberation
Chittaranjan Naik

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Chittarnajan Naik

 

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The following was posted to the Advaitin List March 2005.

Every single thing is of relevance to liberation because every single thing is the free-soaring flag of liberty in the Leela that Liberty Itself has chosen to play!

Every pleasure, every pain, every foolish act, every great achievement, every movement, every thought, everything that one did in the past, does now in the present, and will do in the future - is either the joy or the pain on the path to liberation. Therefore what is there that is not of relevance to liberation?

It is not the fault of darkness if you go with a light to look for it! But of course, we are talking here of Light and not Darkness. When the Darkness dazzles in the Light, we have the universe. It is a kind of love affair. Therefore it hurts. But when the separation is over, there is only the Bliss of Union. Separation and Union is the game of Love.

You are mistaken about Traditional Advaita! Traditional Advaita is not a dogma. It is the synchronising of the breath! The breath that lies between Life and Death! Suspended it is Life, expended it is Death.

Breath is Knowledge knowing movement. Breath suspended is immovable Knowledge.

Prana is not merely the breath of air; it is also the Life that surges as metabolism. It is the esoteric current of the mystery of Life.

Traditional Advaita speaks about Life that one may prepare to Die! It is not a joke but is a serious affair. As serious as gravity. One needs to learn the difficult art of levitation to overcome it!

Traditional Advaita teaches you the serious art of levitation. But only he can learn it that is fit to be an 'aeronaut of the spirit'. The test of fitness is laid out in the instruction manuals of Traditional Advaita. It is a fool that tries to finds a way through the labyrinth by running blindly through it.

Death lies not in the instruction for dying but in Dying. Traditional Advaita is the instruction, but for Dying one needs to walk to the Sacrificial Altar. Traditional Advaita helps one to breathe one's way freely to the Altar.

Traditional Advaita says that when you have prepared well, a disguised person will come to you at a Crossroad that you cannot now see. He will carry with him a sword that will slice clean through your neck. His is an act of Love. He is a mercy-killer! He will kill Death that Life may shine through. He is your Self personified in the mystery of mAyA.

Who says there is no path to liberation? It is not a path made of clay and earth. It is a path that leaves no trace. That you cannot point out a traceless path is no fault of the path.

There is a path from bondage to Freedom. It is the path of Truth in a Reality in which there is only the Truth.

The Truth is thought straightened. The wave straightened is the Ocean Itself.

Straightening of thought is tattva j~nAna which is an intrinsic part of Traditional Advaita.

There is even a path from Freedom to bondage. It is the path of falsity in a Reality in which there is only the Truth.

The false is the vision of the neurotic.

Neurosis is the denial of Truth. 'There is no truth', it says and looks defiantly out of the foolishness of its own absurdity. That is bondage. Freedom from its matrix is liberation. In the realm of language, it is called 'Truth'. That is mImAMsA (Advaita Vedanta).

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